


Tetrawizard Tournament

by acmparker



Series: You're a Parent, Severus [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Gen, Harry Potter Has a Pet Snake, Harry Potter was raised by Severus Snape and Remus Lupin, Lilly Potter and Severus Snape have a Blood Bond, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Severitus | Severus Snape is Harry Potter's Parent, Severus Snape Adopts Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2020-06-23 17:57:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 78,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19706527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acmparker/pseuds/acmparker
Summary: Severus Snape had formed a Blood Bond with Lily Evans when they were at Hogwarts. This means that when Lily dies there is another whose blood relationship with her is recognized by the blood ward Dumbledore places on Harry. Severus Snape decides to check on how the Dursleys are treating Harry, about a month after Lily's death, and isn't pleased with what he finds. With the help of Remus Lupin, Severus has been caring for Harry ever since.Harry turns 14 and starts his fourth year at Hogwarts, where his hopes for a quiet school year are dashed when his name comes out of the Goblet of Fire as the fourth champion in the Triwizard Tournament.





	1. Harry's 14th Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> Here is the first chapter of book 4. I have decided that I'm no longer going to use italics for quotes from the books. If you recognize it it's probably Rowlings. Now that it's summer and I've managed to catch up on my sleep somewhat I should be able to post a new chapter at least once a week again.

“You did talk to Neville’s Grandmother, right? He is coming?” Harry asked impatiently as he came into the living room.

Remus smiled at Harry, who walked up beside him to stand in front of the fireplace, practically vibrating with excitement.

“Of course, Neville’s coming. He should be arriving any minute now. What did you do with Ron?”

“He’s in the backyard waiting for Dad to Apparate in with Hermione.”

“You left Ron in the backyard with all the food? There won’t be any left for the party,” Remus joked.

“Oh, he’s not alone. Paddy’s out there with him.”

“Then there really won’t be any food left. I think Paddy’s still making up for all the meals he missed last year.”

Harry opened his mouth to respond to that, but stopped short when he noticed that the flames in the fireplace had turned green and an elderly witch had emerged from them.

“Mrs. Longbottom, thank you for bringing Neville.” Remus greeted the formidable looking woman.

“Thank you for inviting him to Harry’s birthday party, Professor Lupin. I am so glad that Neville and Harry have become friends.”

As his grandmother stepped forward to shake the hand that Remus offered her, Neville stumbled from the fireplace and was immediately whisked away to the back yard by Harry.

“Neville has been a good friend to Harry, and it has been a pleasure to get to know him,” Remus remarked as they watched the boys disappear out the back door.

“He’s a good boy,” said Mrs. Longbottom, “but I’m afraid that he hasn’t got his father’s talent.”

“I found him to be a promising pupil. With the right encouragement he did well in Defense Against the Dark Arts this year, although Herbology is really where his strengths lie,” Remus said. “I did notice that he seemed to be having some trouble with his wand. I believe his spell work would improve with a wand that is better suited to him.”

Mrs. Longbottom stiffened, and said in an offended voice, “Neville has inherited his father’s wand.”

“So he told me, and I know that he is proud to have it. Still, Neville is not his father and his father’s wand may not be the best fit for him. After all the wand chooses the wizard, and even close relatives may have very different wands.” Remus smiled, “Neville does remind me of Frank at times but I also see a lot of Alice in him and he has a quiet courage that is all his own. You should be proud of your grandson, Mrs. Longbottom.”

The old witch’s face softened a little and she nodded to Remus, “I will consider the matter of Neville’s wand, Professor. Thank you again for inviting him to Harry’s party.”

After Neville’s grandmother had left in another flare of green flame, Remus headed to the backyard where Harry and his three guests were playing with a large black dog as Severus watched. Hermione having apparated in with Severus about the same time that Neville and his grandmother had come through the Floo.

“Emily should be here in about 10 minutes, so you’d better transform back, Sirius. Otherwise you’ll be stuck like that for the whole party,” Remus said as he entered the backyard.

The dog came to a stop beside the picnic table that held the gifts, and turned into a tall, dark haired man, who turned to Harry and called him over to the table.

“Harry! You’d better open my gift now before your Muggle friend gets here.”

Carefully picking up a plain white box from the table, Sirius handed it to Harry, who had sat down on the grass beside the table. The young wizard eagerly opened the box to find a small, slender snake coiled up inside of it.

“He’s beautiful!” exclaimed Harry, admiring the red and yellow striped pattern of the snakes scales.

Gently reaching into the box Harry hissed to the snake, “Hello, lovely one, I hope you will be happy here with me.”

The snake lifted it’s head and flicked it’s tongue out, tasting the air for Harry’s scent. “You speak? The other ones did not speak to me,” it hissed.

“There are not many of my kind who can speak to yours,” Harry explained, realizing that the snake was still quite young, “I am the only one here who can, but there is no one here who would hurt you. Would you like to come out of there to meet them?”

“Yes,” hissed the snake as it slithered onto Harry’s hand, wrapping itself around his thumb as he lifted it out of the box.

“A snake, Black?” said Severus. “Don’t you think you should have checked with me and Remus before you got Harry a pet.”

Harry looked up from his snake and stared pleadingly at his Dad, “Please, let me keep him. I’ll take good care of him and he won’t be any trouble. He isn’t even very big, and it’s not like he’s venomous or anything.”

Sirius spoke up, “Corn snakes, like that one, are popular pets because they are so easy to care for, and I got everything that Harry will need for it. Besides, you should approve, Snape. Snakes are very Slytherin after all.”

“I notice that you managed to find one that had a Gryffindor colour scheme, though,” Severus pointed out dryly. He sighed, “You can keep the snake, Harry. Remus, you’d better give Minerva a heads up about Harry’s new pet. She’ll need to approve him keeping it in his dorm during the school year.”

Harry’s face lit up, “Thank you, Dad. Thanks Sirius, this is the best present ever.”

As Harry went back to talking to his snake, apparently introducing it to his friends, who had crowded around to see it, Severus pulled out his wand and walked over to where Sirius stood. 

“Since Emily will be here any minute, I’d better apply your glamour again,” As he spoke Severus waved his wand and reapplied the charms that disguised Sirius as Remus’ ‘cousin’, Paddy Lupin. “Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go inside to wait for Emily to arrive.”

Sirius looked over at the teenagers admiring the young snake while they waited for the last party guest to arrive. “I haven’t been able to celebrate Harry’s birthday with him since he turned one,” he said wistfully. “I’m glad you and Snape were there for him when I couldn’t be, but I’ve missed so much of his life.”

“At least you’re here now,” Remus said as he slung his arm over his friend’s shoulder. The werewolf tilted his head as he heard the faint sound of voices coming from the front of the house. “Emily just arrived. Remember that Harry goes by Evan while she’s here.”

Harry hissed at the snake, “I won’t be able to speak to you while the one who is next to arrive is here. She is not allowed to know that it is possible for me to do so.”

Harry looked up from the snake as Emily entered the backyard, followed by Severus, “Emily, come see what Moony’s cousin got me. Isn’t he beautiful?”

“It looks like your present is a hit, Paddy,” Severus said as he joined the other two wizards on the lawn. “I think Evan likes it even more than the gift you gave him last Christmas, and I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Jealous, Snape?” asked Sirius.

Severus scowled at him, “Hardly, it’s easy to give the perfect gift when you have so much money to throw around,” Snape hesitated and then continued on thoughtfully, “but the snake shows that you are paying attention to what Evan is really like, not just some image of him you have in his head. I did not expect that of you.”

“Dad, can I open the rest of my presents now,” Harry asked, interrupting their conversation.

Severus said yes and watched as Harry opened his gifts, carefully placing his snake out of the way on the table to do so, noticing with relief that none of them were obviously magical. That would have been hard to explain to Emily. Hermione had given him another board game, Pictionary this time, and when Harry had finished opening his presents the teens decided to play it. The adults were then convinced to play as well, to even out the teams. After a short discussion, Harry, Emily, Neville and Sirius made up one team, while Ron, Hermione, Remus and Severus were on the other. It turned out that Neville had the most skill as a quick sketch artist, a result of his habit of drawing interesting plants so that he could identify them later.

As they played, it turned out that Ron, Neville and Sirius needed help with the meaning of some of the words, because of their lack of experience with the Muggle world. Moony took it upon himself to help Neville and Sirius out when they came across a word they did not know on their turns as the picturist, while Harry helped Ron out. Emily didn’t say anything about it at the time, but Harry could see that she had noticed his friends lack of familiarity with some really simple words, he just hoped he could come up with a reasonable explanation that maintained the statute of secrecy when she asked him about it.

After an afternoon of Board games, card games, and cake, Harry said goodbye to Emily, while her parents chatted for a few minutes with Severus before taking Emily home.

“Thank you for inviting me to your party, Evan, I really enjoyed hanging out with your friends from school. You know, I hadn’t realized until today how different it must be to be able to use magic for things. I mean Neville didn’t even know what a fridge was! I guess his family uses some sort of spell to keep their food from spoiling?”

Harry stared at Emily in shock, then he quickly put on what he hoped was an appropriately puzzled expression, “I don’t know what you’re talking about? Magic?”

“Oh, I know, you can’t tell me anything. Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone else know that I’ve figured it out, but I remember all the weird things that used to happen around you. I also remember the stories you used to tell me when we were little. Our teacher thought that you had a wonderful imagination but you didn’t make them up did you? Your dads were really able to do all those things, like make your toys move on their own and messes just vanish,” Emily’s parents interrupted their conversation to let her know that they were ready to leave. “Goodbye, Evan. Happy Birthday!”

Harry watched her go, still a little stunned. Then he smiled to himself, he should have realized that Emily would put it all together, given how much she liked books about magic, she had spent an entire letter to him detailing the plot of the latest book in the Young Wizard series when it had come out last year. At least she had also realized that the magical world was supposed to be a secret, so she wouldn’t be telling anyone else about it.

Harry looked down when he felt his snake move from where it had been coiled around his left wrist.

“Can you speak now?” it hissed.

“Yes,” he hissed back. “The one who isn’t to know has left, although it seems that she knows more than I thought.”

The snake lifted it’s head and flicked it’s tongue towards Severus who was watching Harry talk to the snake. “Is the smelly one still upset that I am here?” it hissed, not caring about whatever knowledge Emily might possess.

Harry laughed at the snake’s description of his dad and relayed the question, “He wants to know if you are still upset about Sirius giving him to me.”

“I wasn’t upset that Sirius gave you the snake,” Severus explained. “I was upset that he hadn’t talked to me or Moony about it first. What was so amusing about that?”

“He called you the smelly one,” Harry grinned.

Severus raised an eyebrow, “I suppose he can smell the fumes from the potions I have been working on. I don’t particularly care what your snake calls me, since no one else can understand him, but I would appreciate it, if you didn’t spread that particular nickname around. Now, let’s go and say goodbye to the rest of your guests.”

Just before Ron left, Sirius handed him a cage with a tiny gray owl in it.

“I got you a belated birthday present. Since it’s my fault that you no longer have a pet.”

Stunned, Ron accepted the owl and stammered out his thanks before taking the Floo home.

Later that day, Sirius helped Harry set up the snake’s vivarium and tested the charms on it that kept it at the ideal temperature for the snake, and ensured a fresh supply of water.

“So, did you come up with a name for your snake?” Sirius asked as he watched Harry settle the snake into its new home.

“I think I’ll call it Godric. The name goes with his colour scheme nicely,” Harry answered before hissing at his snake, making sure it was happy in the vivarium.

“Snape will hate that name,” said Sirius with a grin. “It’s perfect. So did you have a good birthday, pup.”

“Yes I did,” replied Harry, “like always.” 


	2. The Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry wakes up from a dream about Voldemort, with his scar hurting.

A few weeks after his birthday party, Harry woke up from a vivid dream with a start, his hands pressed over his face. His scar was burning like someone had just pressed a white-hot wire to his skin. He sat up and grabbed his glasses off of his bedside table and put them on with one hand, his other hand still pressed to his forehead. Turning on the light, Harry peered into the mirror that hung above his chest of drawers, studying his scar, which looked normal even though it was still stinging.

Sitting back down on his bed, Harry tried to recall what he had been dreaming about before he woke up. It had seemed so real … There had been two people he knew and one he didn't … He concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember …

The dim picture of a darkened room came to him … There had been a snake on a hearth rug … a small man called Peter, nicknamed Wormtail … and a cold, high voice … the voice of Lord Voldemort. Harry felt as though an ice cube had slipped down into his stomach at the very thought …

Harry tried to remember the rest of the dream, there had been an old man that he didn’t recognize, who had died in a flash of familiar green light. Harry tried to remember what Wormtail and Voldemort had been talking about before they had discovered the presence of the old man but the details slipped from his mind like water running from his hands. They had been talking about someone they had killed, but Harry could no longer remember the name of the person that had been killed. They had also they had been plotting to kill someone else, Harry himself!

Harry took his face out of his hands and looked around his bedroom. The only other times his scar had hurt was when he was around Quirrell, who had been possessed by Voldemort at the time. He knew that Voldemort couldn’t be in Hadon Gardens, the blood wards would prevent him from getting anywhere close to the house where Harry lived with his dad, but he was sure that his scar hurting meant something was going on. Harry leapt to his feet and left his room. His dad would want to know about this right away.

“What’s wrong, Harry?” asked Severus as he opened his bedroom door, in response to Harry’s knock. “Did you have a bad dream?”

Harry nodded, “I had a dream about Riddle and Wormtail, and when I woke up my scar was hurting.”

“Your scar was hurting?” Sirius spoke from the doorway of the bedroom across the hall. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Neither do I,” said Severus. “Why don’t we go downstairs. I’ll make some hot chocolate and you can tell us about your dream.”

Once they were settled at the kitchen table with their mugs of hot chocolate, Harry told the two wizards what he could remember of his dream. Sirius growled at the mention of Wormtail but otherwise listened quietly. When Harry had finished, he looked anxiously at his dad.

“What do you think it means? The dream felt so real but it was just a dream wasn’t it? But I don’t know why a dream would make my scar hurt. I’ve had other nightmares about You-Know-Who and they’ve never made my scar hurt before.”

In answer, Severus rolled back the sleeve of his pajama top to expose a light grey mark on his left forearm. Sirius peered at it.

“Is that …”

“That is the mark that the Dark Lord placed on me when I entered his service. When his body was destroyed on the night that Harry received his scar, it faded until it was barely visible. This summer it has started to darken again. I don’t think it was only a dream, Harry. The Dark Lord is regaining his strength, and you somehow had a glimpse of what he is doing now. We need to continue with your Occlumency lessons. Mastering Occlumency should ensure that this can't happen again, as long as you remember to renew your Occlumency shields every night before going to sleep. Do you remember anything else from your dream?"

"Only what I told you. Riddle had killed someone, I don't remember who, and was planning on killing someone else, but they weren't going to do anything until after the Quidditch World Cup."

Harry knew how his listeners would react if he told them that he was the one that Voldemort was planning to kill, so he had kept that detail to himself. There was no way that he was going to miss the World Cup because of a dream, even if it might have been more than just a dream.

"If you're done your hot chocolate you should go back to bed and try to get some more sleep." Severus said to Harry as he flicked his wand to send the mugs to the sink, where they began to wash themselves.

After Harry had left the kitchen to head upstairs Sirius asked, "Are you going to tell Dumbledore about this?"

"I've already told Albus about the change in my Mark, that is all the information he needs at the moment. If Harry experiences something like this again, you or Remus can inform him then."

Sirius nodded in agreement, it would make more sense for any information about Harry to come from him or Moony since Harry wasn't supposed to be on good terms with Snape. He looked across the table at the other wizard and quietly said, "I wanted to thank you for letting me stay here this summer and arranging for the Mind Healer to see me."

Severus scowled at him, "I didn't do it for you."

"I know but I'm still grateful. I also wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what!" Severus snapped.

“For everything … I’m sorry for the stupid nickname I made up when we first met, all those ‘pranks’ James and I pulled on you while we were at Hogwarts, all the times that I bullied you ...” Sirius met Snape’s furious gaze, “most of all, I’m sorry for trying to feed you to Moony in fifth year, I should never have done that to you, … any of it.”

“You’re sorry,” Snape sneered, “You made fun of me, hexed me, made my life a living hell for years, and then you topped it off by trying to feed me to a werewolf! And now you say you’re sorry, like that makes it OK!” Severus shrieked the last word and then stopped and took a deep breath, continuing in a quieter but no less venomous voice, “I don’t like you Black, the only reason you are here is because of Remus and Harry. We will never be friends, I will never forgive you for what you did to me, and I DON’T accept your apology!”

Sirius stood up and walked to the door, just before he left he turned and quietly said, “I never expected you to forgive me, it was a miracle that Remus and James forgave me and they were my friends, but you deserve to know that I am sorry for everything I did to you. Now, I’d better go to see how Moony is doing, he’s probably transformed back by now.”

Severus buried his head in his hands. He hadn’t had nearly enough sleep to deal with this. After a moment he sat up again and called Dobby.

“Please, make breakfast for Remus and his guest, and bring it to Remus’ room when it’s done. Harry had a rough night and is sleeping in, do not disturb him but make sure he has breakfast when he gets up. I will be in my lab.”

Without waiting for Dobby’s response, Severus headed downstairs into his basement potions lab. A couple of hours later, Harry wandered down to the kitchen to find Dobby waiting for him there with his breakfast.

“Dobby is glad to see that Harry Potter is awake. Harry Potter must eat his breakfast now.”

“Good morning, Dobby,” Harry greeted the house elf with a smile. “Thank you for making me breakfast. It looks good.”

Harry sat down and started to eat. Godric unwound himself around the young wizard’s wrist and slithered around the table, investigating Harry’s breakfast. Dobby asked Harry if the snake would like some food as well, he found the infrequency at which the animal ate to be quite distressing.

“He’s not really hungry right now,” Harry reassured the elf. “You can feed him a pinkie mouse this evening, so that I won’t have to worry about him getting hungry while we’re at the World Cup.”

“Dobby is being very happy to feed Harry Potter’s snake this evening.”

“Thank you, Dobby. Where’s Dad?” Harry asked as he finished his breakfast.

“Master Snape is in his potions lab,” Dobby answered, before muttering, “Sirius Black is a bad wizard who is upsetting Dobby’s Master. Dobby is not liking it when Master Snape is upset.”

Harry thanked Dobby again for his breakfast, before picking Godric up again and heading back upstairs to Remus’ bedroom.

“Sirius, what did you do to upset Dad this time?” demanded Harry as he entered the room.

Remus looked sharply at Sirius, from where he sat, propped up at the head of his bed, “Pads, I thought you were going to stop antagonizing, Sev.”

Sirius protested “I didn’t antagonize him, I apologized to him. He didn’t really take it very well though, not that I expected him to.”

Remus sighed, “No, he wouldn’t take it well. Sev is quite good at holding onto a grudge, and he has a lot of reasons to hate you.”

Harry looked between the two men and then hesitatingly asked, “Why does Dad hate you so much, Sirius? I mean I’ve heard about how you tried to feed him to Moony when you were sixteen, but it sounds like there’s even more to it than that, and why would you do something like that, anyways?”

Sirius winced, “Snape had been poking around, trying to find proof that Remus was a werewolf. I don’t think he really had anything against Remus, except that he was friends with James and me, but Snape knew that exposing Remus’ secret would hurt us. He was taunting me about what he had found out, he had seen Madam Pomfrey take Remus to the Whomping Willow, you see, and I ‘happened’ to let the secret of getting past the Willow slip out. It seemed like a reasonable thing to do at the time. I figured that if he stupid enough to fall for it, he deserved what he got. After all he knew that he could come face to face with a werewolf if he followed Remus, although I’m sure that I managed to imply that James and I had gone there to be with Moony on other full moon nights, so it wouldn’t look as dangerous as it actually was. It wasn’t until I told James about how I had managed to trick the greasy git, and he took off to try to stop Snape before he reached Moony, that I had any idea that there was anything wrong with what I had done.” Sirius rubbed his hands over his face, “Both Snape and James could have been bitten or even killed that night, and Moony would have had to live with what his wolf had done for the rest of his life. As it was, I had handed Remus’ secret to our worst enemy and I’m sure he would have told everyone if Dumbledore hadn’t made him keep quiet about it. I’m surprised that James and Remus were willing to forgive me after that.”

“Why did Dad want to hurt you and my father so badly? I’ve gathered that he really didn’t like Father when you were at school but he would never say why.”

“James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things. I think James was everything Snape wanted to be - he was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James always hated the Dark Arts,” Sirius said.

“But didn’t you meet in first year? How could Dad be up to his eyes in the Dark Arts when he was only eleven?”

Sirius flushed, “Well he was interested in the Dark Arts anyways. The first thing we learned about him was that he wanted to be sorted into Slytherin, thought it was the best house. Everyone knows what Slytherins are like, just look at my family; Slytherins, everyone of them, until me at least, and they were among Voldemort’s biggest supporters.”

“Didn’t your cousin, Andromeda, run away with a Muggleborn when she finished at Hogwarts? I don’t think she was interested in the Dark Arts, even if she was sorted into Slytherin,” Remus interjected quietly.

“Well, I didn’t know she was going to do that at the time,” muttered Sirius.

“You have to remember, Harry that Sirius and James were eleven, too. They weren’t exactly sophisticated thinkers at the time,” Remus said.

Harry nodded, thinking about Ron and his opinion of Slytherins, which was very similar to what Sirius had described.

Remus continued, “Your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did - everyone thought they were the height of cool - they sometimes got carried away -”

“We were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean,” said Sirius.

Remus smiled at him, ”Yeah, that. James did grow up after a while. By seventh year he had deflated his head a little and stopped being such a berk. That’s when Lily started going out with him. He had been interested in her for quite a while at that point, but Lily wasn’t interested until he stopped spending all his time showing off.” Remus’ smile disappeared, “Unfortunately, by then there was too much bad blood between him and Severus, they never did stop trying to hex each other whenever they had the chance. Sirius on the other hand …”

“I never really grew up I’m afraid,” Sirius admitted, “and ending up in Azkaban didn’t exactly help, but I’m trying to change that now, with Healer Pendergast’s help. Anyways, the point is that Snape does have good reasons to hate me and I’m not expecting him to forgive me. It’s enough that he’s willing to tolerate me for your sake.”

“I’m sure that Sev will emerge from his lab in a better mood. Not even Severus Snape can stay mad for long over someone apologizing to him. He just needs some time to work through how he feels about it,” Remus said, leaning back and closing his eyes as he spoke.

Harry and Sirius exchanged looks, and Harry quietly slipped from the room again, while Sirius got his werewolf friend laying back down, and tucked into bed.


	3. Off to the Burrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry goes to stay with the Weasley's for the Quidditch World Cup.

As Remus had predicted, Severus emerged from his lab at lunch time in a much better mood than he had been when he went into it. He greeted Remus and Harry as he joined them in the kitchen, where they sat to enjoy the meal that Dobby had prepared, then he looked across the table at Sirius.

“I’m sorry for my words this morning,” Severus said, stiffly. “I don’t think that I can forgive you yet, but I do appreciate the apology. Even if I didn’t react well to it.”

As Severus helped himself to the lunch, Remus broke the awkward silence, “So Harry, are you looking forward to the World Cup? You’re going with the Weasley’s right?”

Harry lit up and started to talk about the upcoming event and how much fun it was going to be. Sirius grinned at his enthusiasm and joined in the conversation, he had spent time that summer catching himself up on the current Quidditch teams and their players in preparation for the World Cup and he and Harry were soon animatedly discussing the upcoming match. The tension in the room evaporated as the rest of the lunch passed in an intense discussion of the merits of the two teams competing in that year’s World Cup. After lunch Severus insisted on an Occlumency lesson. He did not like the thought that Harry was having visions of Voldemort.

The next day Harry packed up his school trunk, after another Occlumency lesson, since he was going to spend the rest of the summer at the Weasley’s. His dad came into the room as he was trying to figure out what to do with his snake’s vivarium.

“Here, let me shrink that for you so that you can fit it into your trunk. You’ll be able to expand it all right when you unpack at Hogwarts, won’t you?”

“Of course, Dad. But what am I going to use for Godric while I’m at Ron’s?”

In answer, Snape handed Harry a wooden box, that was about the size of a shoebox, “I got you a portable habitat for your snake. I know that the Weasley’s don’t have the room for the full vivarium at their place but this one should do for the time that you are there. It has the appropriate charms on it to make it comfortable for Godric. Now finish up your packing, Mr. Weasley should be here soon to pick you up, and don’t forget to continue to work on your Occlumency while you’re there.”

At 5 o’clock that afternoon, Harry was waiting for the Weasley’s to arrive, his trunk all packed and ready to go. He had already said his goodbyes to his dad and Sirius so only Remus was in the living room with him when the flames in the fireplace flared green and Mr. Weasley stepped through, accompanied by his youngest three sons. It wasn’t long before the twins had maneuvered Harry’s trunk into the fireplace for George to take with him as he returned to the burrow. Fred then left followed by Ron and Harry, but Mr. Weasley lingered after the boys had all left.

“Remus, you’ve met Harry’s aunt and uncle. What are they like?” Arthur asked, once the two wizards were alone.

“Well,” said Remus cautiously, “I haven’t really spent much time talking to them. They have always seemed anxious to have me on my way again as soon as possible when I’ve been there. I get the impression that they’re not to fond of contact with the wizarding world. Why do you ask?”

Arthur looked worried by Remus’ response, “It’s just that Harry doesn’t really talk about them much, but the little he has said has given me the impression that he’s not really happy there. He seems to think that they hate him. Has he ever said anything to you about how they treat him?”

Remus thought quickly. The only thing that Harry knew about his relatives was the story of why Severus had rescued him from them, so it wasn’t surprising that he had given the impression that they hated him. After all why else would they have treated him so badly during the short time he was in their care? But Remus knew that it wouldn’t be a good idea to get the Weasley’s too worried about Harry’s home life, or else it wouldn’t be long before his true living situation would be discovered.

“As I said, they seem to dislike contact with the wizarding world. I believe that they distrust magic, so I can see why Harry believes that they hate him. They probably didn’t react well to his episodes of accidental magic when he was younger, and I’m sure that they aren’t happy with him attending Hogwarts, either. They don’t seem to be mistreating him though, even if they aren’t very loving guardians, they are Harry’s only living relatives.”

Arthur still looked concerned, but he relaxed when Remus said that the Dursley’s weren’t mistreating Harry. It was true that Harry seemed to be thriving under his relative’s care, even if he didn’t like them.

“Of course now that Harry’s at Hogwarts, he doesn’t spend much time at his relative’s house anymore. I like to have him stay here as much as possible, between that and visiting Ron, I doubt he spends more than a few weeks at home during the year.” Remus said.

Arthur nodded, “That’s true, and he hasn’t said anything about his aunt or uncle mistreating him. I’ll be seeing you and your cousin at the World Cup tomorrow?”

“We’re looking forward to it.”

Satisfied with Remus’ reassurances, Arthur departed through the Floo network. He stepped out of the kitchen fireplace at The Burrow, to find all of his sons, except for Percy gathered around the kitchen table talking to Harry. Arthur was amused to see that Harry was obviously quite impressed with Bill’s look. As Harry was introducing them to Godric, Molly came into the kitchen, and kindly greeted Harry, before giving the twins a suspicious look. Fred quickly pocketed the sweet that he had been about to offer Harry and tried to look innocent.

“I hope that the two of you haven’t been trying to pass any of your inventions off on Harry. It’s bad enough that you came up with those things without you testing them on our guests,” she said in a dangerous sort of voice.

Hermione and Ginny had appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, just behind Molly and they quickly motioned to Ron to bring Harry upstairs with them. As they climbed the stairs to Ron’s bedroom, Ron explained to Harry about Mrs. Weasley finding out about the twins plans to sell stuff they had invented to the other students at Hogwarts under the name Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes.

“Don’t eat anything that Fred and George give you. They’ve been testing stuff on themselves, and now that Mom knows about it anyways, they’ve taken to slipping stuff to anyone they think will take it. She’s really mad about the whole thing. She was furious with them anyway, even before that. They didn’t get as many O.W.L.s as she expected.”

“Mom wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic, like Dad,” Ginny said, “but they told her that all they want to do is open a joke shop. There was a big row about that, as well.”

As they passed by his door, Percy poked his head out to see what the noise was about. After a brief conversation about cauldron thickness, Percy retreated back into his room, annoyed by Ron’s dismissive attitude towards his work, and the others continued on up the stairs.

When they got to Ron’s room, Harry was glad that his dad had given him a smaller terrarium for his snake. There definitely would not have been room for the full size vivarium in the room that was filled with four beds.

“Fred and George are in here with us, because Bill and Charlie are in their room,” Ron explained as he squeezed into the room. “Percy gets to keep his room because he’s got to work.”

The owl that Sirius had given Ron at Harry’s birthday party, twittered madly in his cage as they came into the room, despite Ron telling it to shut up. Harry made his way over to the owl, whose name was apparently Pigwidgeon, so that he could introduce it to Godric.

“Why is the small bird so noisy?” hissed Godric in distress as Pigwidgeon zoomed happily around his cage hooting shrilly.

“I don’t know,” replied Harry. “Is it going to be a problem?”

“If you can put up with him, I will manage,” said the snake in resignation, “at least it will be quiet in the box that the smelly one got for me.”

“Where’s Crookshanks?” Harry asked, after translating what his snake had said for his friends. “I would like Godric to meet him as well.”

“Out in the garden, I expect,” Hermione said. “He likes chasing gnomes. He’s never seen any before. You can introduce him to your snake later.”

“You were staying with Professor Lupin before you came here, right?” asked Ginny, as she plopped down on one of the beds. “Did you see much of Professor Snape?”

“Not really,” said Harry. “He usually hides out in his lab when I’m around. I see him a meal times though. Why?”

Ginny blushed and muttered, “No reason, really. I was just curious.”

“How’s it been going with having Si- ?” Ron began but fell silent, at a look from Hermione.

“Moony’s cousin visiting?” Harry said, “It’s been nice, but kind of weird. He’s a lot of fun but he and Professor Snape don’t like each other very much, which makes it kind of uncomfortable on occasion. I think that they’re starting to work things out though.”

“Professor Lupin’s cousin is visiting him?” asked Ginny curiously, while Hermione continued to glare at Ron for having almost said Sirius Black’s name, instead of his cover identity.

“Yes, his name is Patrick Lupin but he goes by Paddy mostly. He’s the one who gave Ron Pig. I had told him about how Ron had lost his rat last year and Paddy decided he needed a new pet. He’s pretty rich apparently, and very generous. You’ll meet him at the World Cup tomorrow.”

Since they could no longer hear Mrs. Weasley shouting at the twins, the teenagers decided to head back downstairs to help with dinner. They found Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen looking decidedly bad tempered. She told them that they were eating in the garden and sent the children outside with the place settings, and then started ranting about the twins. The four teens lost no time in gathering the items they needed and heading outside, where Bill and Charlie were smashing two battered old tables together in mid air.

After Percy complained about the noise, the tables were settled safely onto the grass, end to end, and the damage done to them repaired. By seven o’clock the tables were covered with the dinner that Mrs. Weasley had prepared, and everyone settled down to eat. As he helped himself to some chicken and ham pie, Harry reflected that Mrs. Wealey’s cooking was very different from what Dobby prepared, but just as good. As he ate he listened to Percy talk to his father about his work and how busy his department was, with all the arrangements for the World Cup and Mrs. Weasley commenting on Bill’s earring and hair. Charlie, Fred and George were talking about the World Cup and Harry joined in on their conversation.

By the time they were done eating it was getting dark and Mrs. Weasley reminded them that they would need to be up early the next day to leave for the Cup. Before they headed upstairs she offered to pick up Harry’s school things while she was shopping for her own children.

“Thank you,” Harry said, “but I’ve already done my shopping. Moony didn’t want you to have to worry about it and it was no problem for him to take me last week.”

As they walked back to the house, Harry told Ron and Hermione about how ‘Paddy’ had insisted on accompanying him while he did his back to school shopping.

“He’s always had a lot of money, you know and when he found out that I needed dress robes this year he insisted on taking me to his favorite robe shop to get them. He said that he couldn’t trust Snape not to dress me up in stiff, black robes that would look awful on me. Then he got robes for Moony and Professor Snape while we were there, since they will be at whatever event we need the robes for as well. Just wait until you see them. I don’t like to think about how much they must of cost, but they look amazing and are super comfortable as well.”

“Do you have any idea what’s going on at the school this year. Percy knows and he keeps dropping hints to try to get us to ask him, but I’m not giving him the satisfaction,” said Ron.

“No idea, Professor Snape knows but he’s not about to tell me anything. The only reason I even know that anything is going on is because I wanted to know why we needed dress robes, and Paddy almost let something slip. Moony shut him up pretty quick though. Apparently it’s supposed to be a surprise.”


	4. An Early Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry heads to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasleys. Sirius meets the Malfoys.

It was still dark when Mrs. Weasley woke them up the next morning. The four boys sharing Ron’s room dressed in silence and headed downstairs into the kitchen, Harry collecting Godric’s box on his way out of the room. After coaxing his pet out, he handed it to Mr. Weasley to stow away in his backpack. Sleepily approving of the muggle enthusiast's clothes, he sat down at the table, wishing that he was still in bed, feeling quite envious when he heard that Bill, Charlie and Percy were able to sleep in since they would be Apparating to the World Cup.

Daydreaming about being able to sleep in and Apparate to the World Cup at a decent hour, Harry yawned as he accepted a bowl of porridge from Mrs. Weasley and muttered, “I should have gone with Dad and Moony after all -” Ron elbowed Harry in the ribs, and he found himself suddenly wide awake, as he realized what he had just said.

“What was that dear?” said Mrs. Weasley absently as she passed a bowl of porridge to Ron. “Now where have those girls got to?”

To Harry’s relief it seemed that no one had been listening to his muttering other than Ron. Fred was grumpily complaining about not being allowed to Apparate yet, Mr. Weasley was still fussing with the tickets and George appeared to have gone back to sleep, his head on the table beside his bowl of porridge. Mrs. Weasley had bustled out of the kitchen and headed back up the stairs while Mr. Weasley tucked the tickets safely into the back pocket of his jeans and started to lecture Fred about the dangers of Apparition.

Mrs. Weasley reentered the kitchen followed by Ginny and Hermione, who joined the others at the table, looking pale and drowsy. Mr. Weasley was answering Ginny’s question about why they had to get up so early when Mrs. Weasley interrupted him to yell at George. She had just spotted some of the twin’s Ten-Tongue toffees in his pocket. Mrs. Weasley summoned all of the toffees that Fred and George were trying to smuggle out of the house, and threw them away, much to the twins dismay. As a result the twins and their mother were all in a bad mood when the group said goodbye to Mrs. Weasley, and headed for Stoatshead Hill to catch a Portkey to the World Cup site.

It was the first time Harry had traveled by Portkey, rather than using the Floo or a Muggle method of transportation. As he picked himself up from the ground, when they reached their destination, he decided that it was definitely not his favorite method of travel. He wondered if Apparating was any more comfortable than the other magical methods of transportation. It definitely wasn’t any safer from what Mr. Weasley had been telling them earlier. Godric hissed his displeasure at their jolting arrival from where he was securely clinging to Harry’s wrist.

A twenty minute walk later, they had reached the field where they were going to set up camp, and Harry and Hermione had to help Mr. Weasley figure out the muggle money he needed to pay for their camp site. After witnessing Mr. Roberts, the campground manager, being Obliviated due to his suspicions about the odd characters who were staying at his campground, the Weasley’s and their guests headed to their spot to set up camp. Mr. Weasley was quite excited by the prospect of having to do everything without magic, since there were Muggles around, but Harry considered the precaution to be a little late, considering the obviously magical tents they had passed on their way to their spot. It was no wonder they kept having to Obliviate Mr. Roberts.

It was lucky that Hermione had been camping with her parents before, since no one else had any idea how to erect the tents that Mr. Weasley had brought without using magic. Harry thought wistfully of his camping trips with Moony as he helped Hermione figure out where the poles and pegs went for the tents. Setting up camp was a lot easier using magic.

They had just finished setting up the pair of shabby two-man tents when Ron nudged Harry and pointed to Fred and George who were staring towards the entrance of the campground with looks of shock on their faces. Harry turned to see what they were looking at and saw his dad, Moony and Sirius, polyjuiced to look like the muggle that Severus had based the appearance of Paddy Lupin on, making their way past the various tents, heading in their direction.

“I don’t think that Fred and George were prepared to see Snape dressed as a muggle,” said Ron with a grin.

Harry looked again at the approaching group. His dad was dressed in his usual outfit for mixing with muggles in a casual setting, black jeans and a long sleeve black t-shirt, Moony was in blue jeans with a brown cardigan over top of a white t-shirt, and Sirius looked like he was heading to a rock concert in tight jeans and a muggle band shirt, topped with a leather jacket. Harry was used to seeing them like that at home, but he realized that Fred and George had never seen his dad in anything other than his teacher’s robes.

“I think the sight may have broken them,” Harry responded with his own grin.

Sirius was the first of the trio to spot the Weasley’s campsite. He waved to them as he quickly approached.

“There you are, Arthur!” Sirius said as soon as he was in earshot. “Our spot should be near here, I asked Bagman to make sure that we were near you. Thank you for putting me in touch with him, by the way. He was really helpful. Ah, there it is.”

Sirius headed for the empty spot next to the Weasley’s that was marked with a sign saying ‘Lupin’, before Mr. Weasley could respond to his greeting. Remus followed him to help put up their tent after greeting Harry and the others, but Severus stopped and raised an eyebrow at the twins, who were still staring at him in shock.

“Is there something wrong?” he inquired dryly.

“You’re wearing muggle clothing,” Fred said.

“As are you. This is a muggle area, and so muggle clothing is required,” Severus pointed out.

“But … you look … comfortable ...” George trailed off under his professor’s stare.

“I suppose you thought that I spend all my time in my teacher’s robes? There are occasions when I need to venture into muggle areas, and so I own the appropriate clothing for the task. But I suppose that concept is just too hard for your tiny minds to grasp,” smirking slightly, Severus joined Remus and Sirius in their campsite.

Harry and Ron quickly volunteered to get water from the tap across the campground and pulled Hermione away from the others, carrying the kettle and saucepans that Mr. Weasley had given them to hold the water. As soon as they were out of earshot, the two boys collapsed in laughter while Hermione waited for them to recover in exasperation.

“It’s not that funny,” Hermione protested, as Ron and Harry rolled around on the ground in helpless laughter.

“Yes, it was,” gasped Ron, between laughs. “I never saw Fred and George so stunned before.”

Harry rolled onto his back and looked up at Hermione, “And the way Professor Snape reacted. It was perfect. He’s going to be in a good mood for the rest of the day after having gotten the better of the twins like that.”

Hermione smiled reluctantly, “I suppose it was a little funny, but you two need to get a hold of yourselves. We are supposed to be getting water.”

Once Ron and Harry had picked themselves up off of the ground again, the three friends made their way across the campground. They stopped to talk to Seamus and Dean in front of the Finnegan’s shamrock covered tent, Harry showing Godric off to his dorm mates, and then they took a detour to look at the Bulgarian tents with their posters of Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker. They finally made it to the tap and filled their various containers before heading back to the tents. On the way back they spotted more familiar faces, like Oliver Wood, who dragged Harry over to his parent’s tent to introduce him. Harry was pleased to hear that he had been signed on with Puddlemere United, since he knew how dedicated Oliver was to the game. Ernie Macmillian greeted them as they went by and Harry spilled quite a lot of water down his front when Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker, smiled and waved at him.

When they made it back to the campsite, Harry saw that Remus had managed to put up the tent Sirius had bought for the occasion. He suspected that some surreptitious magic had been used in the process since he knew that none of the men had ever gone camping without magic before. Surprisingly enough, Sirius’ tent was quite restrained, with nothing visibly magic about it, at least on the outside. Harry thought that was likely due to Moony’s influence, since Sirius had yet to prove himself capable of restraint when left to his own devices. His dad was nowhere in sight, but Remus and Sirius had joined Mr. Weasley, who was having the time of his life trying to light a fire with the matches he had brought. As the teens set down the containers of water, Severus came out of Sirius’ tent and walked over to stand beside Remus. After Mr. Weasley managed to light a match and promptly dropped it in surprise, Severus made an impatient noise and took the box of matches from him, briskly lighting a match and coaxing the fire to life.

“Even after twelve years, you’re still full of surprises,” said Remus as he watched Severus carefully feed the small fire to keep it going.

“Some things you never forget,” Severus replied absently, watching the flames to make sure that they weren’t about to go out again. Satisfied that the fire would continue to burn Severus straightened up and said, “I’m going to see if the Malfoy’s have arrived yet. I’ll see you at the game, Moony.” He then strode away towards where the Malfoy’s tent had been set up.

While they waited for the fire to get hot enough to cook on, Harry, Ron and Hermione decided to check out the tents. Hermione was rather concerned that there wouldn’t be enough room for everyone to sleep in the small tents, until she saw the inside of one of them.

“It’s bigger on the inside,” Hermione whispered in awe as she looked around. Harry started to laugh and Ron looked at the two of them for a moment before he shook his head.

“Is that another one of your muggle references? One of these days you’re going to have to show me one of those teevee shows so I can understand your jokes.”

“You’ll have to visit my place for that,” said Hermione thoughtfully. “I can ask my parents if I can have the two of you over during the Christmas holidays, maybe, but you’d better not say anything about the stuff that’s happened to us. If my parents knew about how much danger I’ve been in at Hogwarts they would never let me go back.”

“All right, if we visit you we won’t say anything about trolls, three headed dogs, basilisks, or escaped convicts around your parents. Right Ron?” Harry said.

Ron nodded, “Not a word. I know that I don’t want Mum and Dad to know everything we’ve been up to. They already know too much as it is.”

When Severus reached the Malfoy's tent a house-elf appeared at the entrance and bowed to him.

"How can Piskey help sir?"

"Please let Lucius and Narcissa know that I'm here." Severus said.

"Piskey will be telling Mistress."

The house-elf bowed again and then disappeared. It returned quickly and pulled back the flap of the tent inviting Severus in. As he entered, Severus pulled a shrunken, black robe from his back pocket and restored it to its original size before putting it on, covering his Muggle clothing.

"Severus, what a surprise. I didn't know that you were planning to attend the match," Narcissa greeted him warmly.

"I hadn't been intending to be here, a Professor's salary doesn't extend to such luxuries, but Remus' cousin, the one who has been staying with us this summer, insisted on treating us."

Narcissa nodded, “Oh yes, I remember you mentioning that Remus had a cousin visiting. Well, since you’re here you must join us for lunch. Piskey, set another place at the table.”

“So what’s this visiting cousin like?” asked Lucius as they sat down at the table.

Severus snorted, “Annoying. Paddy Lupin is a loud, brash, Muggle loving Gryffindor. I’ll be glad when he has his inheritance sorted and is ready to move out. Remus isn’t here with me right now because he feels like he needs to stay with his cousin, and Paddy has attached himself to the Weasleys. He’s probably fawning over Potter as we speak, as if that brat needed any more attention.”

They had finished lunch and were talking in the main room of the tent when Remus and Sirius arrived looking for Severus. Narcissa greeted them when Piskey showed them into the tent.

“Remus, how lovely to see you, and this must be your cousin.” Turning to Sirius she said, “Severus was just telling us about you, Mr. Lupin. It’s so nice to meet you.”

“No need to be so formal, Cissy, you can call me Paddy. It’s way too confusing it I go by Mr. Lupin when there are two of us here.” Sirius interjected.

Narcissa stiffened at being addressed as Cissy by someone she had just met, but continued politely, “We’re so happy that you decided to treat Remus and Severus to tickets for the World Cup. It was such a pleasant surprise when he showed up at our tent.”

Sirius smiled genially at Narcissa, “Well, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see the Quidditch World Cup when I realized I’d be in England for it, and of course I had to bring my favorite cousin and his partner. Especially when they’ve been so generous as to have me stay with them while I get things sorted out.”

Lucius said, “It must have been difficult to get tickets at such a late date. I hope that you were able to get good seats. We’ll be sitting in the Top Box, as personal guests of Minister Fudge of course.”

Sirius’ smiled brightly, as he turned to the older man, “Then we’ll be seeing each other at the game, Luci. Bagman was very helpful in getting us seats with him in the Top Box, once I had helped him with some unexpected expenses of course.”

Severus muttered to Remus, “Why did you bring him here? I thought he was happily ensconced in the Weasley’s campsite for the afternoon.”

Remus shrugged, “Barty Crouch came to talk to Arthur. I thought it was better to get Paddy out of there before he did something we’d regret, and gave himself away. We won’t stay long, and I made Paddy promise not to aggravate Lucius, too much.”

True to his word, Remus dragged Sirius away as soon as he was reasonably confident that Crouch would be gone from the Weasley’s campsite. Severus apologized for his house guest’s undue familiarity after they had left and then quickly changed the subject, determined to keep Sirius as far away from the Malfoy’s as possible in the future.


	5. The Quidditch World Cup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Quidditch World Cup and the excitement that follows it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The past couple of weeks have been busy but I managed to get another chapter written. Enjoy!

As soon as it was dark, salesmen Apparated in every few feet, carrying trays and pushing carts full of magical merchandise. Sirius eagerly joined Harry and his friends in strolling through the salesmen, buying souvenirs. He bought everything that caught his eye, as well as various items for the others, topping his gifts off with Omnioculars all around. Since Fred and George had given Ludo Bagman all their gold betting on the match, Sirius also insisted on buying them some things as well, despite their protests. All three of the Weasley boys were bothered by the money being spent on them, but Sirius just ignored their objections and bought them the souvenirs anyways.

Laden down with Sirius’ purchases, they made their way back to the tents. Then a deep booming gong sounded somewhere beyond the woods, and green and red lanterns blazed into life in the trees, lighting a path to the field. It was time for the match to begin! Sirius dropped most of his souvenirs off in his tent, and Harry settled Godric down in his box before joining the others as they headed down the path to the gigantic stadium. Soon they had made their way to the Top Box which was still empty, except for a house-elf sitting on the edge of her seat in the row behind them, her face buried in her hands.

“Moony, there’s a house-elf here. Maybe you should have brought Dobby, I’ll bet he would have enjoyed it,” Harry said when he saw her.

The house-elf looked up and peeked at Harry from behind her fingers. “Does sir know Dobby?” squeaked the house-elf. “I knows Dobby too, sir! My name is Winky, sir - and you, sir -” Her eyes widened as she spotted Harry’s scar. “You is surely Harry Potter!”

“Yeah, I am,” said Harry.

“But Dobby talks of you all the time, sir! He is being proud to be serving the great Harry Potter’s family.”

“I’m glad to hear that Dobby is happy with his new master but Professor Snape isn’t really my family you know,” Harry said, uncomfortably, “I just spend a lot of time there on the holidays visiting Moony. Dobby should have explained that to you.”

A sly look crossed Winky’s face, “Of course, sir. Winky is saying it wrong. Dobby is being proud to be serving a master who has Harry Potter visit him so often. Dobby is being glad to serve Harry Potter when he is being there.”

Remus smiled at the house-elf, “That’s right, Winky, and Severus and I are glad to have such a faithful servant in Dobby. He is a good house-elf, as I’m sure you are as well.”

Turning away from the house-elf, Harry asked Remus if he could call Dobby so that he could watch the game with Winky, “Winky might be a little happier to be here if she had a friend her as well,” Harry said.

“I’m sorry, Harry but Paddy didn’t get a seat for Dobby.”

“Maybe Winky would be willing to share her seat, after all neither she or Dobby are very big, they should both fit.”

Winky peeked from between her fingers again, “Winky would be happy to see Dobby, sir. Dobby is being Winky’s friend.”

“Alright,” laughed Remus, “Dobby!”

Dobby appeared with a pop and bowed to Remus, “Master Moony called Dobby. How can Dobby help, Master Moony.”

“Dobby how would you like to stay here and watch the Quidditch game with Winky?”

Dobby looked up with tears in his eyes, “Master Moony is too good to Dobby. Dobby is being very grateful for a chance to watch the World Cup with Dobby’s friend Winky.”

After bowing again, Dobby looked around for Winky and quickly joined her in her seat. Winky relaxed a little as the other house-elf sat beside her, although she still was very careful not to look outside of the box. Harry and Remus rejoined the rest of their party as more people started to enter. As Harry watched them, he was struck by how many of these obviously important wizards knew Mr. Weasley. They kept coming over to shake his hand, causing Percy to leap to his feet repeatedly. Percy’s antics ended after he embarrassed himself by bowing so low to Minister Fudge that his glasses fell off and shattered.

Shortly after Fudge arrived, and was introduced to Harry, the Malfoys arrived, along with Severus who made his way between the rows to the seat that Remus had been saving for him. Lucius greeted the Minister of Magic, introducing Draco and Narcissa to him. In return Fudge mangled an introduction to the Bulgarian Minister of Magic and then made the mistake of mentioning Arthur Weasley. Lucius’ eyes swept over Mr. Weasley, and then up and down the row.

“Good lord, Arthur,” he said softly. “What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn’t have fetched this much?”

Sirius frowned at Lucius, “That was really rude, Luci,” he said in a scolding tone. “No wonder Draco is such a git at school if that’s the example you’ve been giving him. I think you should apologize to Arthur, don’t you?”

Lucius looked back at Sirius with a cold stare and then continued down the line to his seat. Fudge looked uncomfortable and quickly started talking about Lucius’ generous donation to St. Mungo’s hospital. As Draco sat down between his mother and father, Harry looked back at him with a friendly greeting. The blond boy sneered back at him and then quickly returned the greeting when he noticed Sirius watching him. He had no desire to have this strange wizard give him a public scolding, like his father had just received.

“Slimy git,” Ron muttered as he, Harry and Hermione turned to face the field again. “I don’t know why you bother with him Harry, I really don’t.”

Harry shrugged. He wasn’t sure himself why he kept trying to befriend Draco, he certainly didn’t get any encouragement from the other boy and he knew that his dad was ok with them not being friends, but he still wanted to try. If nothing else it was funny how much it threw Draco off when he continued to respond to the Slytherin’s baiting with friendliness. At that point Ludo Bagman charged into the box and made the welcoming announcement to start the pregame show.

Severus watched the boys reaction to the Veela with amusement, being unaffected by the creature’s allure himself, until Harry got up and put his leg up on the wall of the box, as if he was going to climb up onto it. Severus tensed, ready to leap forward and grab his son, and then relaxed again as the music stopped before the boy could go anywhere. He heard Sirius chuckle from his seat on the other side of Remus, as Harry and Ron sat back down in their seats looking rather dazed. Severus smiled and settled back into his seat as the Irish team’s leprechauns took to the field in a brilliant display, raining leprechaun gold down on the spectators. He was looking forward to the match, especially since he rarely got to attend anything more than the school matches at Hogwarts.

The match proved to be an exciting one, with Ireland winning although Victor Krum caught the snitch for Bulgaria. When the game was over, Lucius leaned forward to invite Severus to his tent to celebrate Ireland’s victory. He then turned to Remus.

“You are welcome to come as well, as long as you don’t bring that cousin of yours,” Lucius said stiffly.

Remus politely declined the invitation and left with Sirius, Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys. On the way back to his tent, Lucius invited some more of his friends to his little celebration. Severus realized with a chill, as he looked at the group accepting drinks from the Malfoy’s house-elf that all of them were Death Eaters, or at least sympathizers. He had a bad feeling about how this evening would go, but he needed to stay and ensure that they believed that he was still devoted to the Dark Lord.

As he usually did Severus accepted a drink at the beginning of the evening and nursed it carefully, making it last, to ensure that he was not tempted to take another one. He had seen too much of what strong drink could do to someone in his childhood, and Severus was determined not to follow his father’s footsteps in this regard. As a result, he was able to keep his head as those around him lost theirs. The night progressed and Lucius’ guest continued to drink deeply, and become more and more reckless in their talk. Finally, emboldened by alcohol and his friends’ talk, Lucius suggested they take action and Severus knew that it was time to withdraw.

“Enjoy your sport, Lucius. I would love to join you, but I dare not jeopardize my position near Dumbledore if I am to be of service to the Dark Lord when he returns,” Severus said with a show of reluctance as he stood and set down his wine glass, “I will take Draco and leave you to your fun.”

The gathered death eaters donned the robes and masks that Lucius had sent Piskey to fetch for them and slipped out into the quiet campground, while Severus went to wake Draco. Draco sleepily followed his godfather into the woods, but insisted on stopping where he could watch the goings on in the campground through a gap in the trees. It wasn’t long before laughter and drunken yells were heard from the far side of the campground. Severus watched with disgust as his fellow Death Eaters came across the field with Mr. Roberts and his family floating above them, setting fires and blasting tents out of their way as they went. He was relieved to see the Ministry wizards start to converge on the marchers, although they were handicapped in their ability to help the muggles by their fear of making them fall.

Suddenly, Hermione’s voice rang out in the dark under the trees, casting Lumos, and her wand lit up revealing Ron sprawled on the ground near to where Draco and Severus stood.

“Tripped over a tree root,” he said angrily, as he got up.

“Well, with feet that size, hard not to,” drawled Draco, from where he stood leaning against a tree, watching the excitement in the campground.

Harry, Ron and Hermione turned sharply and stared at Draco. Ron opened his mouth and then closed it as he noticed Severus standing under the tree beside Draco.

“Hi Draco,” said Harry quickly, before Ron could decide on an insult that he was willing to use in front of an adult. “I suppose you’re here for the same reason we are? To keep away from all of that?”

At that moment a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.

“We’d better keep moving, they’re getting closer and I’m supposed to be keeping you out of trouble, Draco.” Severus said.

“ _They’d_ better keep moving if they don’t want _her_ to spotted.” said Draco sulkily, nodding towards Hermione. “I want to watch the fun.”

“Draco, those wizards are all quite drunk and it is dark. I told your father that I would keep you out of trouble and that is exactly what I intend to do. Now move!”

Severus’ lit his wand, brilliantly illuminating the path through the woods. Draco reluctantly started moving along the path away from the campground and Severus turned to the others, “You too. I intend to keep my eye on all of you since apparently the adults in charge of you aren’t doing their job.”

“They’re all trying to help stop those wizards and rescue the Muggles,” Harry explained as they moved through the wood. “We were supposed to be with Fred and George but we lost them in the crowd.”

“I suppose you’re parents are out there wearing masks, Malfoy?” said Ron scornfully.

“Even if they are Ron, that’s not exactly, Draco’s fault. He can’t help who his parents are, anymore than Hermione can,” Harry said. “It’s not fair to get upset at Draco judging Hermione by what her parents are and then turn around and do the same thing to him.”

“That’s not the same thing at all, Harry,” Ron protested. “There’s nothing wrong with being a muggle but Malfoy’s dad is a Death Eater, he’s evil.”

“Draco isn’t his dad, Ron. No matter what his family is like, he can still make his own choices. Just look at Paddy.”

“Paddy was in Gryffindor, not Slytherin. He never wanted to be like his parents,” argued Ron.

“Your house doesn’t determine who you are and what you’ll decide when it really matters, the Professor and Wormtail prove that. We need to give Draco a chance, so that he knows that there is someone for him to go to if he ever decides that he doesn’t want to be like his dad, like the Marauders did for Paddy.”

“If you’re quite done discussing me like I’m not here,” said Draco. “Even if my parents were out there, I wouldn’t be likely to tell you, would I, Weasley?”

Ron looked at Draco thoughtfully and then turned away and pulled out his wand, lighting it like Hermione’s and Severus’.

“Fred and George can’t have gone that far,” he said, squinting up the path ahead of them.

Harry shook his wand into his hand from the sheath on his arm and lit it as well. Draco rolled his eyes and then reached into the pocket of his robe, drawling, “I guess I might as well help you look so that I can be rid of the lot of you.” Then his face paled and he began to frantically search his pockets.

“I’ve lost my wand! It’s not here!”

“Are you sure that you grabbed it when we left the tent?” asked Severus.

“It was in the pocket of my robe, I didn’t take it out when I went to bed last night!” Draco answered frantically.

“Maybe it fell out of your pocket?” Hermione suggested, raising her wand and looking around as if she expected to find it lying on the ground near them.

Ron and Harry lifted their wands as well to spread the light further, but there was no sign of Draco’s wand anywhere.

“It probably fell out when you took your robe off,” said Harry. “I’ll bet it’s back in your tent.”

“Maybe …” Draco said, looking around hoping to see his wand somewhere.

He was distracted from his search by Winky moving across the path in front of them. Struggling to get away from the commotion in the campground, she was having trouble moving; it was as though someone invisible were trying to hold her back. A loud bang from the edge of the woods cut off Hermione’s rant about the mistreatment of house-elves that was inspired by the sight of Winky’s difficulty in getting away from the danger in the campground.

“Keep moving,” ordered Severus, urging the teens forward.

He kept them moving along the path deeper into the woods, past a group of goblins cackling over a sack of gold. Farther along Severus hurried the group past three veela before the boys could be caught by their allure. By the time he felt it was safe to let them slow down they were in the very heart of the woods, with no one else around, except for Ludo Bagman, who emerged from a tree right ahead of them. He seemed to be totally unaware of what was happening in the campsite and disapparated as soon as they had filled him in.

Tired, Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to settle down in a small clearing off of the path. Draco lingered on the path, and glanced over at his godfather, wondering what he should do now. He had no desire to continue to spend time in the trio’s company but Severus did not look like he was willing to leave them by themselves in the forest. Draco sighed and sat down a short distance away from the other teens. It looked like he was going to be stuck with them for a while longer.


	6. The Dark Mark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone casts the Dark Mark using Draco's missing wand.

The four teenagers sat in a small clearing in the woods, watched over by the dark gaze of their Potion’s professor, Draco trying very hard to look like he had nothing to do with the other three. He was distracted from his attempt to disassociate himself from his companions when Harry pulled out a box from inside his jacket and opened it up to reveal a small snake. Harry hissed at the snake, who hissed back before curling back up in its box. Draco stared as Harry closed the box again and tucked it safely back into his jacket.

“What did he say?” asked Ron curiously.

“Oh, I just wanted to make sure that he was alright, and he told me that he was fine and wanted to go back to sleep. I don’t think he approves of middle of the night disturbances,” explained Harry.

“Since when did you have a snake, Potter?” Draco asked. “Do you really think you’re going to be allowed to keep it in the Gryffindor tower?”

“Paddy gave it to me for my birthday,” said Harry, “and McGonagall’s already approved me keeping it in the dorm. Godric is a corn snake and perfectly harmless, and he’s promised to be on his best behaviour. I’d introduce you but he’s already pretty grumpy so I’d rather not wake him up again.”

“Like I’d want to meet any snake that you’d own,” Draco muttered, then remembering that he was trying to ignore the trio’s existence, he abruptly turned his back on them.

“I hope the others are okay,” said Hermione after a while.

“They’ll be fine,” said Ron.

“I hope they can get those muggles down alright,” said Harry with a glance in Draco’s direction. “It would be awful if they got hurt, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s bad enough that the Ministry kept Obliviating Mr. Roberts like that, without this happening. I mean, do they even know what the long term effect of multiple Obliviates over the course of a day are?”

“They’ll be fine,” Ron said reassuringly. “The Ministry wizards will find a way to get them down safely and they won’t remember a thing about it. And I’m sure that the Ministry knows what it’s doing when they Obliviate muggles, after all they’ve been doing this for a long time.”

“I’m sure that they have been but I’m not so sure that they care enough about what they are doing to the muggles to -” Harry broke off abruptly at the sound of someone staggering towards their clearing.

Severus readied his wand and looked in the direction that the sound of uneven footsteps were coming from, placing himself between the source of the sound and the children. They waited listening to the footsteps until they came to a sudden halt.

“Hello?” called Harry.

Severus hushed him and listened carefully but there was only silence. Harry got to his feet and moved to the edge of the clearing, peering into the darkness. Severus grabbed him by the shoulder and hissed at him to get back. Then without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood; and it uttered not a panicked shout, but what sounded like a spell.

“MORSMORDRE!”

And something vast, green, and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness that their eyes had been struggling to penetrate; it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.

“The Dark Mark!” hissed Severus and pulled Harry back towards the other children. “We need to get out of here now!”

Suddenly the wood all around them erupted with screams. Severus started to herd the other three teenagers back towards the path, towing Harry along by his hold on the boys shoulder, as he went.

Before they had moved more than a few steps across the clearing, a series of popping noises announced the arrival of twenty wizards, appearing from thin air, surrounding them.

“DOWN!” yelled Severus pushing Harry and Draco to the ground and then dragging Ron and Hermione down as he dove to the ground himself, just in time.

“STUPEFY!” roared twenty voices and there was a blinding series of flashes. It felt like a powerful wind swept the clearing, as jets of red light flew over them from the wizards’ wands, crossing one another, bouncing off tree trunks and rebounding into the darkness.

“Stop!” yelled Arthur Weasley, “STOP! That’s my son!”

Mr. Weasley strode towards the group on the ground, clearly terrified, “Ron - Harry - Hermione - are you alright? Who do you have with you?” He stopped as he recognized the pale blond hair of the boy staring wide eyed at him from the ground. “Draco Malfoy, Professor Snape what are you doing here?”

“Looking after your youngest son and his friends, Weasley, and they are just fine. No thanks to you and the incompetents you work with,” said Severus scornfully, as he picked himself up off the ground and helped Draco up as well.

“Out of the way, Arthur,” said a cold, curt voice. “Severus Snape, Dumbledore won’t be able to get you out of this one. You’ve been caught red handed conjuring the Dark Mark.”

Mr. Crouch pointed his wand at Severus, his face taut with rage.

Severus raised an eyebrow, “I had nothing to do with the appearance of the Dark Mark. You are free to check my wand if you doubt me.” He held out his wand and waited.

“Do not lie! You’ve been discovered at the scene of the crime. We’ll soon see the proof of your guilt!” Mr. Crouch shouted, his eyes popping.

Mr. Crouch placed his own wand tip to tip with Severus’.

“Prior Incantato!”

The tip of Severus’ wand glowed faintly, showing that the last spell he cast was the Lumos he used to light his way through the woods. Mr. Crouch kept his wand in place and a tiny ghostly robe came out of the end of Severus’ wand and grew until it was full size. An assortment of other ghostly images emerged, until Mr. Crouch finally removed his wand from Severus’ breaking the spell.

“So, are you satisfied that I didn’t conjure the Dark Mark?” asked Severus.

“Professor Snape couldn’t have done it,” protested Harry. “He was right here with us the whole time. The Dark Mark came from somewhere over there,” Harry pointed at the place where they had heard the voice. “There was someone behind the trees … they yelled something … some sort of spell.

The gathered witches and wizards discussed the likelihood of finding anything in the direction that Harry had indicated, while Barty Crouch stared suspiciously at Harry. Finally Amos Diggory disappeared into the darkness to see if the culprit had been caught by their reflected Stunners. A few seconds later they heard him shout.

“Yes! We got them! There’s someone here! Unconscious! It’s - but - blimey …”

“You’ve got someone?” shouted Mr. Crouch, sounding highly disbelieving. “Who? Who is it?”

Mr. Diggory reemerged from behind the trees carrying the tiny, limp figure of Winky in his arms. Mr. Crouch did not move or speak as Mr. Diggory deposited his house-elf on the ground at his feet. Everyone stared at him as he remained transfixed, his eyes blazing in his white face staring at Winky. With a jerk he came to life again.

“This - cannot - be,” he said. “No -”

He moved quickly around Mr. Diggory and strode off towards the place where Winky had been found, ignoring the other wizard’s assurance that there was no one else there. As Mr. Crouch searched the area, Mr. Diggory looked grimly down at Winky’s unconscious form.

“Barty Crouch’s house-elf, a bit embarrassing for him … I mean to say …”

Mr. Weasley protested the idea that the house-elf could have conjured the Mark, pointing out that she would need a wand to do it. That was when Mr. Diggory showed him the wand that he had found in the house-elf’s hand. After Ludo Bagman appeared and Mr. Crouch returned to the clearing, Mr. Diggory revived Winky, who burst into sobs at the situation she had woken up to. Mr. Diggory’s declaration that he was a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures did not help her regain her composure.

Mr. Diggory brandished the wand that he had taken from Winky as he accused her of casting the Dark Mark that floated in the sky above them, filling the clearing with green light. When the wand caught the light, Draco gave a start.

“Hey - that’s my wand! How did that elf get her hands on it?” he said indignantly.

Everyone in the clearing looked at him.

“It’s your wand? Is this a confession?” said Mr. Diggory.

“Of course not,” said Draco scornfully. “If I had used my wand to cast the Dark Mark, I wouldn’t have said anything now, would I? I discovered that I had lost my wand not long after we started down the path, I have no idea how the elf ended up with it. As Potter can confirm, I’ve been with him the whole time we’ve been stuck in these woods.”

Harry nodded, “That’s right, Draco’s been with us the whole time. He was right here when we all heard the Dark Mark being conjured so it couldn’t have been him.”

Mr. Diggory hesitated and then turned back to Winky. “So, you found this wand, eh, elf? And you picked it up and thought you’d have some fun with it, did you?”

“I is not doing magic with it, sir!” squealed Winky, tears streaming down her face. “I is … I is … I is just picking it up, sir! I is not making the Dark Mark, sir, I is not knowing how!”

“It wasn’t her!” said Hermione, nervously. “Winky’s got a squeaky little voice, and the voice we heard doing the incantation was much deeper!” She looked around at the others appealing for their support. “It didn’t sound anything like Winky did it?”

Harry and Ron agreed with Hermione that it sounded like a human voice rather than a house-elf. Mr. Diggory seemed unimpressed by their testimony. With a feeling of deja-vu they watched Mr. Diggory perform the same spell on Draco’s wand that Mr. Crouch had performed on Severus’. But this time the results were quite different, a gigantic serpent-tongued skull erupted from the point where the two wands met, although it was a mere shadow of the green skull high above them.

“Deletrius!” Mr. Diggory shouted, and the smoky skull vanished in a wisp of smoke.

“So,” said Mr. Diggory with a kind of savage triumph, looking down upon Winky, who was still shaking convulsively.

“I is not doing it!” she squeaked. “I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how! I is a good elf, I isn’t using wands, I isn’t knowing how!”

“ _ You’ve been caught red-handed, elf _ !” Mr. Diggory roared. “ _ Caught with the guilty wand in your hand _ !”

“Amos,” said Mr. Weasley loudly, “think about it … precious few wizards know how to do that spell … Where would she have learned it?”

“Perhaps Amos is suggesting that I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?” said Mr. Crouch, clearly angry.

“No of course not, Mr. Crouch,” said Mr. Diggory, “But she has the Malfoy boy’s wand. I’m sure he knows how to conjure the Dark Mark, taught by his father. Who’s to say that he didn’t give the elf his wand and tell her what to do with it, and then attached himself to Harry Potter to give himself an alibi.”

“I told you it didn’t sound like Winky at all! She couldn’t have been the one to say the incantation!” Hermione exclaimed angrily, her earlier nervousness gone in her frustration at her information being ignored.

“I would listen to Hermione, Mr. Diggory. I have found her to be a careful and accurate observer. If she says that the voice they heard saying the incantation in question could not have been the house-elf then I’m sure she is correct,” said Remus as he stepped off of the path into the clearing with Sirius following behind him.

Ludo Bagman lit up when he saw the two wizards. “Paddy! You’re just the man I wanted to talk to!” he cried, before pulling Sirius aside to whisper to him urgently.

“Moony!” said Harry. “How did you get here?”

“Paddy and I have been searching the woods for you and your friends. I should have realized that you would have been at the centre of the biggest commotion,” Remus glanced at the sky. “I presume that there is some suspicion that Winky was the one to conjure the Dark Mark?”

Harry explained what had happened. “And since it was Draco’s wand that was used to cast the spell, Mr. Diggory thinks that Draco put Winky up to it somehow,” Harry finished.

“That seems unlikely, especially since Hermione says that the caster did not sound like a house-elf. It’s much more likely that the culprit left the wand behind as he made good his escape.” Remus turned to Winky, “Where exactly did you find Draco’s wand?”

Winky flinched, despite Remus’ kind tone and twisted the hem of her tea towel, fraying it beneath her fingers.

“I - I is finding it … finding it there, sir …” she whispered, “there … in the trees, sir …”

“Remus is right,” declared Mr. Weasley in relief. “Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they’d done it, leaving Draco’s wand behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up.”

Mr. Diggory accepted this and started to question Winky about whether she had seen anyone before coming across the wand but Mr. Crouch stopped him.

“Amos,” said Mr. Crouch curtly, “I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into your department for questioning. I ask you, however, to allow me to deal with her.”

Mr. Diggory looked as though he didn’t think much of this suggestion at all, but it was clear that Mr. Crouch was such an important member of the Ministry that he did not dare refuse him. Mr. Crouch assured them that Winky would be punished and made it clear that he meant to free her. At that point Sirius, who had finished his hushed conversation with Bagman in time to hear Mr. Crouch threaten Winky with clothes, spoke up.

“If you have no use for your house-elf anymore, I’ll take her off your hands. I will need a good house-elf when I get started on cleaning up the house I inherited. It’s been empty for so long that I’m sure it will require a lot of work.”   
  


Mr. Crouch scowled at him, “You would want an elf that has proven to be so disobedient? Who does not care for her master’s commands or her master’s reputation.”

Sirius smiled, “I’ve always found that if you have enough money and know how to use it, your reputation takes care of itself. Come now, if you’re going to be losing her services anyways wouldn’t you like to at least have something to show for it. Name your price for the elf.”

As Sirius talked to Crouch, Mr. Weasley retrieved Draco’s wand from Mr. Diggory and returned it to its owner. Draco quickly pocketed the wand and left the clearing with his godfather, relieved that it seemed he wasn’t going to be in trouble for what his wand had been used for after all. Behind him Draco could hear Granger fussing about how the house-elf had been treated, as Mr. Weasley led his charges back to their tents.


	7. Hogwarts Express

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus Snape takes Draco home after the events at the World Cup and discusses the change to his Dark Mark with Lucius Malfoy. Harry introduces his new snake to Draco on platform 9 and 3/4 and a conversation on the Hogwarts Express does not go the way Draco wants it to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry to be a bit late with this chapter. I've had a busy week.

Draco and Severus arrived back at the Malfoy’s tent to find it empty except for one small house-elf. Piskey bowed to them, wringing her hands in distress.

“Professor Snape, sir, Master is telling me to be bringing you and Master Draco to Malfoy Manor when you is getting back to the tent. Master and Mistress is being waiting for us there.”

Piskey grabbed both Severus and Draco and with a pop they found themselves in the Manor’s parlour, where Narcissa was pacing restlessly as she berated a very shaken looking Lucius. Narcissa cut her rant short when she saw Draco’s arrival and rushed over to embrace him.

“Draco! Are you alright?” Narcissa moved back just enough to get a good look at her son, examining him for any evidence of injury. “You weren’t hurt in all the confusion, were you?”

“Mother, I’m fine! Uncle Severus was with me the whole time and I can take care of myself,” Draco whined as he shrugged himself out of his mother’s grasp.

Narcissa reluctantly released Draco and turned to Severus, “Thank you for taking care of Draco. I’m glad  _ someone _ was looking out for him.” She glared at Lucius before returning her attention to her son, sending him off to bed.

Lucius waited until Draco had left the room before he spoke, “Someone conjured the Dark Mark, Severus. It wasn’t you was it?”

“No, it wasn’t me. I heard them but I didn’t recognize the voice, although it was definitely a wizard. Whoever it was used Draco’s wand to cast the spell.”

Lucius’ head jerked up at that. “Draco’s wand! Are you sure?”

“I was there when those Ministry bumblers tested the wand. There is no doubt that Draco’s wand was used to conjure the Dark Mark. It is fortunate that we had met up with Potter and his friends in the woods, even that fool Diggory was unable to argue with an alibi provided by the boy-who-lived.”

“Are you sure that Draco won’t be in trouble because of this?” demanded Narcissa.

“I’m sure. He has his wand back now and no one seemed interested in accusing him further,” Severus reassured her.

“That’s good,” said Lucius. “Severus, have you noticed a change in your Mark?”

Lucius rolled back his sleeve to display his left forearm, visible on it was a light grey mark. Severus pulled up his sleeve to display the matching mark on his own arm.

Lucius grew even paler, “What do you think it means?”

“It means that the Dark Lord is gaining strength again, soon he will be back and the war will begin again,” Severus said.

Narcissa gasped, “Draco …”

Lucius scowled at her, “You should have let me send Draco to Durmstrang like I wanted to, then he would have been well out of this.”

Narcissa looked stricken, "I couldn't bear to send him so far away, and at Hogwarts he had Severus there to look out for him."

Severus scoffed, “It wouldn't have done any good to send him to Durmstrang anyways, as Karkaroff will soon discover. Distance means nothing to the Dark Lord. The only way to keep Draco away from Him would be to appeal to Dumbledore for protection."

"Like you have done?" asked Lucius scornfully. "Narcissa, there is no need to be concerned about Draco. When the Dark Lord returns I will be ready to rejoin him and to win his favour. Draco will reap the benefits of the new order that He will bring to our world, with no need to crawl to a senile, old muggle lover for protection."

Severus hadn't really expected Lucius to agree to seek Albus' protection, despite his fright, but it had been worth a try. At least the seed had been planted, now it was time for damage control.

"I'm glad to see that you've come to your senses, Lucius,” Severus said smoothly. “When the Dark Lord returns he will be in need of information that only I will be able to provide to him. The reward will be worth enduring his initial … displeasure. I am sure that with your resources you will also be able to win the Dark Lord’s favour, for yourself and your family.”

Narcissa looked as if she wasn’t any happier with the idea of Draco being in the Dark Lord’s favour than she had been with the thought of him being involved in a war, but Lucius had regained his customary air of self satisfaction. Severus joined in Lucius’s gloating about the power that they would gain through serving the Dark Lord, until he was certain that the other wizard’s momentary suspicion of his true allegiance had been forgotten, and then he took his leave.

A week later, Narcissa fussed around Draco as they stood on platform nine and three-quarters, engulfed in the steam billowing from the scarlet steam engine pulling the Hogwarts Express. Draco shifted restlessly and looked around the platform, hoping to see a friend to give him an excuse to cut his goodbyes short. His mother had been on edge and almost smothering in her maternal solicitude ever since the events of the World Cup, and he was glad that the summer was over and he was on his way back to school. Draco looked over towards the entrance to the platform as another group of students slipped through the barrier, only to suppress a groan when he saw that it was Potter, Weasley, and Granger.

Potter spotted Draco and ran over to him with a big grin.

“Draco! I was hoping that I would see you. I’d like you to meet Godric,” Potter said as he arrived in front of Draco.

He coaxed a red and yellow snake out of his sleeve and on to his hand, where it wound itself around his fingers and hissed at him. Potter hissed back at the snake and then grinned at Draco again.

“This is Godric. I apologize for his grumpiness, he’s usually much more polite than that. He’s not very happy about the rain, you see.”

Draco stared at Potter and the snake twisted around his hand. “What did it say?” he asked before he could stop himself.

Potter blushed, “It wasn’t very polite, I’m afraid, and I’m not sure exactly how to translate it, but he was complaining about being asked to leave the shelter of my sleeve. Only his language was rather colourful. I hadn’t realized that snakes knew how to swear.”

Draco blinked. “Leave it to you to get a snake in Gryffindor’s colours, Potter,” he said scornfully, trying to pull himself together. Once again, Potter had made him feel off balance and out of control of the conversation.

Potter laughed, “That’s why I named him Godric. I think it’s brilliant, it’s like Godric represents both sides of me, the snake and the lion. Well, I guess I’d better go get my luggage on the train, and find out where Hermione and Ron have decided to sit. I’ll see you later, Draco.”

Potter gave an awkward nod to Narcissa, and ran off again, heading back to where he had left his luggage.

“I wasn’t aware that you were friends with Harry Potter,” said Narcissa, after Potter had left.

“I wouldn’t exactly call him a friend, Mother,” Draco drawled. “I can’t stand him and his famous scar, but Potter is apparently too dim to understand when he’s being snubbed.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t try so hard to snub him then,” Narcissa said as she straightened Draco’s tie for the third time that morning. “My Dragon, dangerous times are ahead of us. Your father and I will do all that we can to keep you safe, but there may come a time when you will have a reason to be glad that the boy-who-lived thinks of you as a friend.”

Draco thought about what Potter had said to Weasley in the woods, but that couldn’t be what Mother was talking about, he was sure that he would never want to reject his father to kowtow to the likes of Potter and his muggle loving friends. Draco opened his mouth to protest, but was stopped by a look from his mother.

Narcissa continued, “I know that you can’t openly befriend him, you do not want to be seen to be allying yourself with Harry Potter as things are now, but do not try to drive him away either. That can be a difficult line to tread but I am sure that you can manage it.”

Narcissa kissed Draco on the cheek and straightened his robes one more time before saying goodbye. Relieved he made his way to the train, thinking about what his mother had said. He was sure that she couldn’t mean that he might one day need Potter to rescue him, as the scar faced git had implied on the night of the World Cup, so why would he ever want Potter to think of him as a friend? Did this had something to do with the Dark Mark that had been conjured with his own wand by some unknown person, maybe Mother was talking about how Potter had verified his alibi for when the Mark had been conjured? ‘That was probably it,’ Draco concluded, ‘Mother wants Potter to continue to be willing to defend me against anyone who might want to accuse me of being the one to have conjured the Dark Mark that night.’

Draco quickly forgot about his mother’s puzzling behaviour when he reached the compartment where his friends were waiting for him. He was eager to tell them everything that his father had told him about the Triwizard Tournament happening at Hogwarts that year. This lead to a discussion of two other schools that would be participating in the Tournament and Draco was so involved in explaining how he almost went to Durmstrang that he didn’t realize that Potter and his friends were in the next compartment until midway through the afternoon, when he heard them talking about the World Cup with Finnegan and Thomas. Draco wandered over to the open door of the compartment, with Vincent and Greg close behind him, just in time to hear Ron boast about being in the Top Box for the game.

“For the first and last time in your life, Weasley,” Draco drawled as he looked into the compartment.

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that, Draco. I wouldn’t underestimate Ron if I were you,” Harry said cheerfully. “Why don’t you join us. I’m sure that you have a lot to say about the game.”

Draco sneered, “Sit with a bunch of Gryffindorks, not likely, Potter.”

He was about to retreat back into his own compartment again when he saw the robes covering what appeared to be a small bird cage.

“Weasley … what is  _ that _ ?” Draco said as he pointed at sleeve dangling from the cave, complete with a moldy lace cuff.

Quickly grabbing the robes before Ron could stuff them out of sight, Draco was filled with a sense of glee as he held them up to show Greg and Vincent.

“Look at this!” he said. “Weasley you weren’t thinking of  _ wearing _ these, were you? I mean - they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety …”

“Eat dung, Malfoy!” said Ron, his face the same colour of those truly awful dress robes, as he snatched them back out of Draco’s grip. Draco started to laugh but Harry interrupted him.

“I see that you still haven’t learned basic manners, Draco. Didn’t your mother teach you that if you can’t say anything nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all.”

Draco flushed angrily. “I am  _ so  _ sorry to have offended you with my poor manners, Oh Great One. I do hope you and the Weasel can find it in your hearts to forgive me,” he said as sarcastically as he could manage.

Harry smiled brightly and responded with exquisite irony, “How  _ could _ I refuse such a gracious apology. Of course we’ll forgive you, won’t we Ron?”

Ron looked up from stuffing his dress robes out of sight and scowled at Draco, then he looked over at Harry’s smile and sighed.

“Alright, fine!” He then turned to Draco and said sarcastically, “I accept your apology, Malfoy, in the spirit in which it was offered.”

“Great!” said Harry. “Now, was there any particular reason you stopped by, Draco?”

“I was just wondering if Weasley was going to enter and finally bring some glory to his family name? There’s money involved as well and we all know that he could use it. I suppose that you will Potter? You never miss a chance to show off, do you?”

“What are you talking about?” snapped Ron.

“ _ Are you going to enter? _ ” Draco repeated.

Granger looked up from the book she was studying, “Either explain what you’re going on about or go away, Malfoy.”

Draco smiled gleefully as he realized that they had no idea what he was talking about.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know?” he said delightedly. “You’ve got a father and a brother at the Ministry and you don’t even  _ know _ ?  _ My  _ father told me about it ages ago … heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then Father’s always associated with the top people at the Ministry … Maybe your father’s too junior to know about it, Weasley … they probably don’t talk about important stuff in front of him …”

“Draco, you really need to stop talking about stuff that you don’t know anything about.” Harry said in tones of deep disappointment. “If you had been paying any attention at the World Cup you would realize just how well connected Mr. Weasley is. Of  _ course _ he knows about what’s going on at Hogwarts this year, Ron’s whole family knows, except for Ginny, Ron and the twins that is. I guess your father just isn’t as concerned with keeping it a surprise as the Weasleys are. Anyway, we’re all going to learn about what’s going on at the welcome feast tonight, so it doesn’t really matter now.”

Once again feeling off balance after an exchange with Potter, Draco returned to his own compartment, determined to ignore the scar faced git for the rest of the school year, even if that meant that he had to leave off teasing Weasley to do it.


	8. The Triwizard Tournament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione discovers that Hogwarts has house-elves and the Triwizard Tournament is announced at the Welcome feast. Harry gets a letter from Sirius and Remus. Draco is unable to resist the temptation to tease Ron when an article mentioning Mr. Weasley is published in The Daily Prophet and Mad-  
> Eye Moody steps in.

The students straggled into the Great Hall, dripping wet from the pouring rain outside and the encounter with Peeves’ water balloons in the entrance hall. Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table and pulled Godric’s travel box out from under his robes, opening it to make sure that his snake was still warm and dry. Satisfied that Godric was ok, Harry chatted with his friends as they waited for the sorting to start. Colin Creevey greeted Harry with the news that his younger brother was among the first years waiting to be sorted.

The sorting took longer than Ron, who was anxious for the feast to start, would have liked but finally it was over and they could eat. As they started in on the food that had appeared, Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, told them about the trouble Peeves had caused in the kitchen while the feast was being prepared. When he mentioned that Peeves had terrified the house-elves Hermione started, knocking over her cup of pumpkin juice.

“There are house-elves here at Hogwarts?” she asked horror struck.

“Certainly,” said Nearly Headless Nick, “The largest number in any dwelling in Britain, I believe. Over a hundred.”

“I’ve never seen one!” said Hermione.

“Well, they hardly ever leave the kitchen by day, do they?” said Nearly Headless Nick. “They come out at night to do a bit of cleaning … see to the fires and so on … I mean, you’re not supposed to see them, are you? That’s the mark of a good house-elf, isn’t it, that you don’t know it’s there?”

Hermione looked down at her hardly touched plate of food, then put her knife and fork down upon it and pushed it away from her.

“Not this again!” Harry exclaimed in exasperation. “Hermione, like I keep telling you, house-elves don’t want to get paid, they get offended if you try! Do you know what Dobby’s main complaint is? That there isn’t enough work for him to do at Professor Snape’s house! He was delighted when Paddy asked for his help with cleaning up the house he had inherited.”

“It’s still slave labour,” Hermione said angrily. “I can’t eat a meal prepared by slave labour!”

“Hermione, refusing to eat the food they made is only going to upset the house-elves in the kitchen,” Harry said. “They take their duties to feed the people in their charge pretty seriously, Dobby even got upset that my _snake_ doesn’t need to be fed everyday.”

“Oh c’mon ‘Er-my-knee,” said Ron around a mouthful of Yorkshire pudding. “You won’t help them by starving yourself!”

But Hermione wouldn’t eat another bite, despite Ron’s attempts to tempt her with the puddings when they appeared on the table.

Once the feast had been finished, Albus Dumbledore stood up from his seat at the High Table. He made the usual start of year announcements and informed them all that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup was cancelled, much to the dismay of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who had won the Cup for the past two years. Before Dumbledore could announce the event that was going to be taking up the teacher’s time and attention instead of Quidditch, he was interrupted by a late arrival.

Harry had never seen anyone like the man that entered the Great Hall midway through Dumbledore’s announcement. Every inch of visible skin seemed to be scarred and he had a large chunk of his nose missing. But the most disturbing this about him was his eyes. One of his eyes was small, dark, and beady but the other one was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye moved ceaselessly, without blinking and was rolling up, down, and from side to side, quite independently of his normal eye. At one point it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man’s head, so that all they could see was whiteness.

The stranger reached Dumbledore and shook his hand. After they spoke for a moment, Dumbledore seemed to be asking the new arrival something, Dumbledore gestured to the empty seat on his right hand side and the man sat down and started to eat some sausages that had appeared on the table when he arrived. Dumbledore introduced the stranger as their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody.

While everyone was still transfixed by the remarkable appearance of their new professor, Dumbledore cleared his throat and announced that the school would be hosting the Triwizard Tournament that year. Hermione was alarmed by the mention of the tournament being discontinued due to the mounting death toll but Harry was more interested in hearing about the tournament than worrying about deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago, especially when Dumbledore informed him that changes had been made to ensure that no one would find themselves in mortal danger due to the tournament.

One of the changes that had been made was that only students who were of age, that is seventeen years or older could enter the tournament. Fred and George were disappointed to hear that, since they didn’t turn seventeen until April, but Harry was relieved that no one could expect him to enter. As attractive as the idea of winning the tournament was, Harry would rather have a quiet school year without the risk of being injured or killed, after the past three years it would make for a nice change of pace.

They discussed their schedules for the year over breakfast the next morning. Hermione had decided that there were better ways to make a stand about house-elf rights than to starve herself, so she was eating as well. Midway through the meal, hundreds of owls came soaring through the open windows delivering the mail, Hedwig among them with a letter from Sirius.

Harry,

Don’t tell Hermione but I think I made a mistake in buying that house-elf from Crouch. She will work if I give her a task to do, but she’s even more of a downer than Kreacher, crying all the time about how lost Crouch will be without her there to take care of him. She actually seems to like the old bastard.

Moony is telling me that I should probably explain who Kreacher is if I’m going to mention him. Kreacher is part of my inheritance, the family house-elf. He’s been hiding out in the house ever since my mother died and I think he’s gone around the bend. I’m glad that we’ve got Dobby to cook for us because I think Winky might poison us by accident and Kreacher would probably do it on purpose.

The house itself is just like I remember it, gloomy and full to the brim with cursed knick-knacks and if that wasn’t bad enough my mother’s portrait is hung in the front hall with permanent sticking charms, screeching at us anytime we attract her attention. Nothing Moony and I have tried has worked to take it down, I’m thinking of taking out the wall to get rid of it. I am always relieved when it’s time to leave, I think I’d go spare if I had to spend all of my time here.

I heard that Dumbledore got Mad-Eye out of retirement, which doesn’t surprise me what with the signs we've been seeing. I’m glad that Dumbledore is taking things seriously. Write back soon and let me know how you are doing, I know that The Professor is keeping an eye on you but I still want you to keep me informed as well. 

Moony’s been hovering over me while I write this so I’m going to let him add his bit now before I send the letter off. Give my best to Ron, Hermione and Neville.

At this point the handwriting changed.

Hello Harry,

I hope that you enjoyed your week at the Weasley’s and the trip back to Hogwarts. Paddy and I are making good progress on cleaning up his house, with the help of the elves, but it’s going to be a while before it’s habitable. There is a lot to do, as Paddy said, so it’s a good thing that we have Dobby and Winky to help us.

Winky isn’t really as bad as Paddy made her out to be. She’s understandably upset about being dismissed from the family where she has served all her life but I’m sure that she wouldn’t actually poison us by accident. Dobby has been looking out for her and I think it’s helping that there is so much for her to do. I also wrote to Percy to ask him to let us know how Crouch is doing and that cheered her up some. I just hope that Crouch doesn’t get sick or something, it would really set her back to know that he was sick and she couldn’t do anything to help take care of him. I’m thinking of asking Healer Pendergast if there’s anyone who would be willing to take a house-elf as a patient if she doesn’t start to cheer up soon.

Kreacher, on the other hand, probably would try to poison us if he was doing the cooking. I can’t really blame him though. I think Paddy’s right that he’s not quite sane anymore after all the time he spent alone with no one to care for, and the way Paddy treats him isn’t helping. Kreacher keeps stealing things from the piles we sorted out to get rid of and hiding them in the cubby where he sleeps and insulting us as he does it, and Paddy isn’t reacting well to that. I’m trying to get Paddy to leave Kreacher alone, I don’t care what he calls me and he’s not really doing any harm in rescuing some of the things that are important to him for whatever reason. Dobby has been trying to make friends with Kreacher and I hope he succeeds. Maybe he’ll be able to convince Kreacher that we’re not so bad after all.

I’m sure that you’ve heard about what’s happening at Hogwarts this year by now. I want to make it perfectly clear that you are not to enter the Triwizard Tournament. I know that Dumbledore is going to be doing something to prevent under age students from entering and he has good reasons for doing so. The Tournament is dangerous and The Professor and I do not want you to be involved in any way.

Write back soon and let me know what you think of Professor Moody. He was a formidable Auror in his time so I expect that you will learn a lot from him and I’m glad that you have such a knowledgeable DADA professor. Tell Hermione, Neville and all the Weasleys hello from me.

Love,

Paddy and Moony

Harry showed the letter to Ron, Hermione and Neville when he had finished reading it. Hermione gasped when she reached Sirius’ description of Kreacher and was furious by the time she had finished the letter. She spent the walk to Herbology going on about how unfeeling Paddy was towards Winky’s distress and how terrible it was that the house-elves were treated like property, that could be inherited or sold. By the time they got to the greenhouse the boys were relieved when Hermione had to stop talking to pay attention to Professor Sprout. Even collecting bubotuber pus was better than listening to Hermione’s rant.

Draco re-read the article that he had found in the Daily Prophet, trying to decide what he wanted to do about it. The article was the perfect ammunition to use on Weasley, the thought of his impotent fury as Draco taunted him with its contents was almost irresistible, but Potter would be there to diffuse the Weasel’s anger and put Draco in the wrong once again. As Draco passed through the entrance hall he heard Weasley descending the stairs to where he stood, he stopped hoping that Potter wasn’t with him for once. They did finish off the day in different classes, didn’t they?

“Miserable old bat,” he heard Weasley complaining. “That’ll take all weekend, that will …”

“It’s your own fault for asking to see Lavender’s Uranus,” Longbottom replied.

Then Granger’s voice joined the conversation, “Lots of homework? Professor Vector didn’t give us any at all. Isn’t that right, Harry?”

Draco groaned to himself as he heard Potter agree with the mudblood. He should have known, Potter and Weasley were never apart for long. As the four friends reached the entrance hall, Potter spotted Draco standing near the base of the stairs, watching them.

“Hey Draco. What’s up, Doc?” he greeted the Slytherin with a friendly grin.

Draco scowled at the boy-who-lived. “More of your muggle nonsense, Potter?” he sneered, before turning to Weasley and holding out the paper. “Your dad’s in the paper, Weasley, displaying his usual incompetence. It’s too bad that they didn’t even get his name right. It’s almost as though he’s a complete nonentity,” he taunted, as he shoved the paper into Ron’s hand.

Ron glared at Draco, “I wouldn’t talk about incompetence if I were you, Malfoy. You do still have your wand don’t you? The next time you lose it, Harry might not be there to protect you from the consequences.” Ron turned away from the furious Slytherin, “Come on, let’s get something to eat, I’m hungry.”

BANG!

Draco had drawn his wand and fired a spell at Ron, just grazing his cheek. Before any of the Gryffindor’s could react there was a second loud BANG, and where Draco had been standing was a pure-white ferret shivering on the stone-flagged floor.

“OH NO YOU DON’T LADDIE!” roared Professor Moody as he limped down the marble staircase, his wand pointing at the ferret. As the students stood frozen in place, Moody turned to Ron.

“Did he get you?” he asked.

Ron shook his head mutely, staring at the ferret that used to be Draco Malfoy.

“LEAVE IT!” Moody shouted suddenly, causing Ron to start and turn his wide-eyed stare to the Defense Professor.

“Leave - what?” Ron asked, obviously confused.

“Not you - him!” Moody growled, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Crabbe, who had bent over to pick up the white ferret.

The ferret took off when Moody started to limp toward him but he didn’t get far.

“I don’t think so!” roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again, causing it to fly ten feet into the air. He then let it fall with a smack to the floor and then sent it bouncing upward again.

“What are you doing?” Harry exclaimed in protest. “You’re going to hurt him! Stop!”

“I don’t like people who attack when their opponent’s back’s turned,” growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. “Stinking cowardly, scummy thing to do …”

“STOP!” Harry said again. “You’re hurting him!”

“Professor Moody!” said a shocked voice, and Harry was relieved to see Professor McGonagall coming down the stairs with her arms full of books.

“Hello, Professor McGonagall,” said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.

“What - what are you doing?” said Professor McGonagall, watching the ferret’s progress through the air.

“Teaching,” said Moody.

“Teach - _Moody, is that a student_?” shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.

Professor McGonagall ran down the stairs and pulled out her wand; a moment later, Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his face. Harry ran forward to help a wincing Draco to his feet as McGonagall informed Moody of the _appropriate_ ways to discipline the students.

“Are you all right?” Harry asked.

Draco ignored the question as he shrugged out of Harry’s grasp and looked malevolently up at Moody, muttering something about telling his father.

Moody limped forward, “I know your father of old, boy … You tell him Moody’s keeping a close eye on his son … you tell him that from me … Now, your Head of House’ll be Snape, will it?”

“Yes,” said Draco resentfully.

“Another old friend,” growled Moody, “I’ve been looking forward to a chat with old Snape … Come on, you …”

Moody seized Draco by the arm and marched him off towards the dungeons.

Harry followed Ron and Hermione into the Great Hall, worrying about the way Moody had been talking about his dad. The way the retired Auror talked about him had sounded rather threatening and after what he had done to Draco, Harry knew that he was dangerous. He was glad that Potions started the next day, so that he would be able to see for himself that both Draco and his dad were ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I will manage to finish another chapter next week, I'm going to be too busy with preparations for the new school year. I will try to have a chapter published by the end of the following week.


	9. Mad-Eye Moody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry has his first Potions class of the year, and his first DADA class. Hermione talks to some house-elves.

Harry was glad to see that Draco looked alright at breakfast the morning after Mad-Eye Moody had transfigured the Slytherin into a ferret and bounced him around the entrance hall. He knew that his dad would take care of any injuries Draco might have sustained after Moody brought the blond boy to him but he had still been worried. It was good to see Draco looking like he usually did after what had happened.

That afternoon the Gryffindors and Slytherins had their first potions class of the year. Professor Snape was unusually irritable and Harry was sure it was because of Professor Moody. Harry had noticed that his dad was avoiding Moody’s eye, whether magical or normal whenever he saw them together. The ex-Auror obviously made his dad nervous and after what happened to Draco, Harry wasn’t surprised. At the end of the class, as the students quickly cleaned up, eager to escape their Potion professor’s presence, Severus fixed Harry with a cold stare that was tinged with malice.

“Potter, I know that your need to show off will make the lure of the Triwizard Tournament irresistible, but do not let your penchant for breaking the rules get the better of you,” Severus said in a soft, silky voice. “You wouldn’t have a hope of completing the Tournament’s tasks with your mediocre grasp of magic.”

“I’m not stupid!” Harry declared, indignantly. “I know that I haven’t learned nearly enough yet to compete in something like that! Why does everyone think that I’m planning on entering?”

“Perhaps it’s because you have managed to put yourself and your friends in danger every year with your flouting of the rules. You would think that all the time you have spent in the infirmary would have taught you that your fame has not made you invulnerable.”

Harry gritted his teeth and stared up at his dad, “I assure you that I have no intention of entering the Triwizard Tournament, _Professor_ ,” he spat out. “Now that I have assuaged your _concern_ for my well being …” and without waiting for a response from Snape, Harry turned to leave the classroom.

“Not so fast, Potter! I have not given you permission to leave yet.” Harry stopped at the whipcrack of his dad’s voice but did not turn around, his back stiff with anger as Severus continued. “I will not tolerate this kind of disrespect from you, Potter. Ten points from Gryffindor and I will see you this evening for detention. I have a barrel of horned toads that requires disemboweling.”

Taking his attention away from Harry, Snape swept his dark gaze across the other students. “Class dismissed!”

“I can’t believe that they all think I would be so dim as to enter the Tournament,” Harry complained to Ron and Hermione as they left the dungeons. “First Draco, then Moony and now Professor Snape, do they really think that I’d want to compete in something that’s _killed_ people in the past. Besides, Dumbledore’s the one who’s going to make sure that underage students can’t enter, I’m sure that nothing I could come up with would beat whatever precautions he’s put into place.”

“Well, you have been in the middle of everything that’s happened over the last three years, Harry,” said Hermione in a reasonable voice. “I’m sure they’re just worried about you … Well Moony and Professor Snape are probably worried about you. I don’t think Draco really cares if you’re hurt or not.”

Harry glanced around at the other students filling the halls they were walking through and then snorted, “I don’t think Professor Snape cares either, Hermione. He just wanted an excuse to put me down again. Being able to give me detention, was just an added bonus.”

“Well, if you wanted to avoid detention you shouldn’t have lost your temper,” Hermione said. “I’m off to the library, I’ll see you two at dinner.”

“Do you really think he’s going to make you disembowel an entire barrel of horned toads,” Ron asked in a horrified whisper after they had split off from Hermione.

Harry shrugged, “I hope not. I guess I’ll find out tonight.”

To Harry’s relief, he was not required to disembowel any toads at his detention that evening. Instead Severus repeated his warning about not attempting to enter the Tournament and then asked how the other fourth year Gryffindor boys were dealing with Harry keeping a snake in their dormitory.

“They all think that Godric’s really cool,” Harry said. “Especially when I fed him last night. Fortunately, Godric didn’t seem to mind the audience.”

Harry watched the snake explore his dad’s desk for a few minutes and then brought up the topic that had been on his mind ever since the previous night.

“Ron’s really excited about our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class on Thursday but I’m not so sure. I mean everyone thought it was really funny when Moody turned Draco into a ferret but he could have really been hurt. What if he does something like that in class?”

“I don’t think that you have anything to worry about,” Severus reassured Harry. “Professor Moody targeted Draco because of his father’s connection to the Dark Lord, which won’t apply to any of your classmates, and Professor McGonagall will be monitoring him more closely after that incident as well.”

“Is that why he makes you so nervous?” Harry asked. “Because he knows that you used to be a Death Eater?”

Snape sighed, “Yes, Professor Moody was one of the top Aurors involved in rounding up the Dark Lord’s followers after his defeat. He was very unhappy that any of us escaped imprisonment, no matter who vouched for us or for what reason. I am not willing to do anything that might provoke him, unless I need to protect one of my students from him. Fortunately, Professor McGonagall should be more than capable of preventing any more incidents like last night's. Still, I would appreciate it if you let me know if anything happens in your Defense classes that you find upsetting. If you want I can assign you another detention for Thursday, after all you haven’t finished disemboweling the toads.”

When Harry made it back to the Gryffindor common room that evening, he made sure to complain loudly to anyone that would listen about Snape giving him a second detention because he hadn't finished disemboweling the entire barrel of horned toads.

Thursday evening, Harry left Ron working on his Divination homework in the Gryffindor Common room and made his way back down to the dungeon. He was still feeling shaken from their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, so he was glad that he would be able to talk to his dad about it.

“Well, how did it go?” Severus asked as Harry entered the Potions classroom.

“Professor Moody did a lesson on the Unforgivables. He demonstrated them on some spiders,” Harry said.

“He did what! Are you alright, Harry?”

Harry found himself in his dad’s arms, close to tears as he thought about what Moody had done to the last spider, and all that the sight had made him think of.

“When he used the killing curse ... I recognized the green light,” Harry said into his dad’s shoulder. “It’s the same light that I sometimes see in my dreams … the same light that I saw whenever the dementors were near me … when I would hear Mom ...”

Snape’s arms tightened around his son, and he blinked back his own tears, “That must have been difficult. Moody should never have shown you those curses, it's part of the sixth year curriculum for a reason.”

Harry drew back and gave a watery smile, “I’ll be alright. I think seeing the Cruciatus Curse was worse for Neville, but Professor Moody offered him tea after the lesson and he seemed ok when I left to come down here. Apparently he talked to Neville about Herbology and that cheered him right up. Anyways, Professor Moody was right that we’re going to need to know what they look like so we can protect ourselves.” The teen squared his shoulders and took a deep breath, “I … I know that the Dark Lord is returning and he’s going to be after me, so I need to be prepared.”

Snape felt his heart twist in his chest as he watched his young son steel himself for another confrontation with his enemy, the ever present guilt rising up and threatening to pull him under. It was his fault that the Dark Lord had targeted Harry as a baby, his fault that Lily wasn’t there for her son. If he had only listened to her when they were still friends … Severus wrenched his mind away from the thoughts dragging him down into the sea of guilt that filled him. He couldn’t allow himself to go down that path, Harry needed him.

“You’re right, Harry, you do need to be prepared for whatever the Dark Lord might decide to do, but remember that you don’t need to face him on your own. Remus and I, and your mutt of a Godfather, will always be there to help you.”

Harry smiled brightly, “I know, Dad. Thank you.”

“Speaking of the Dark Lord, have you had any more dreams like the one you had this summer?”

Harry shook his head, “No, it was just the one.”  


“Good. Still, it would be best if we worked on your Occlumency some more. I hope you have been practicing.” Severus raised his wand, “Legilimens”.

After a short Occlumency lesson, Harry made his way back to the Gryffindor common room, where he found Hermione showing Ron a box of colourful badges with the letters S.P.E.W on them.

“Spew?” said Harry, picking up a badge and looking at it. “What’s this about?”

Hermione explained her idea to start the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Harry listened silently until she had finished explaining the aims of the Society.

“Hermione, you spent all this time in the library researching but have you actually talked to any house-elves?” Harry asked.

“No,” said Hermione. “Now, I think that we should start by recruiting members -”

“Then don’t you think you should ask the house-elves what _they_ want before you try to make all these changes for them,” Harry interrupted her.

Hermione huffed, “Harry I’ve read everything that the library has about the history and treatment of house-elves, and you saw how those wizards all treated Winky. Something needs to be done about it.”

“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t try to improve things for the house-elves, but maybe you should find out what they want first,” Harry responded in exasperation. “Dobby!”

Dobby appeared before Harry and bowed low. “How can Dobby be helping Harry Potter,” he squeaked as he straightened up from the bow.

“Dobby, Hermione is interested in helping house-elves. She is upset that you don’t get paid for the work that you do, or get time off.” Harry informed the house-elf.

Dobby’s eyes widened, “House-elves is not needing to be paid, miss, everything a house-elf is being needing is being provided by the elf’s family. House-elves is being proud to serve our wizards, miss.”

“But, I know that you weren’t happy to serve the Malfoys,” Hermione protested.

Dobby’s expression darkened, “The Malfoys is being bad wizards, miss. Dobby is being glad to leave them, but Dobby is happy with Harry Potter’s family now. Dobby is not wanting to be paid or to have time off. Dobby knows that Master Moony and Master Severus is being needing Dobby, and Dobby is working hard to help clean Paddy’s house.”

“How’s Winky doing, Dobby?” asked Harry.

“Winky is being sad that she is no longer with Mr. Crouch, but Winky is being happy that Paddy has so much work for her to do. It is not being good for a house-elf to not have enough to do. It was being very bad for Kreacher to have no wizard to look after for so long.”

Harry turned to his friend. “You see, Hermione. House-elves don’t want to be paid, or to have time off but they do need protection against having to serve a family that mistreats them. I think S.P.E.W could do a lot of good, but only if you are willing to listen to the house-elves, rather than deciding that you know better than they do what they need.” Harry yawned, “It’s been a long day, I’m going to bed. Thank you for coming to talk to us, Dobby. Good night.”

Hermione was silent as Harry headed for the stairs to the boys dormitories. Ron hesitated, and then hurried after Harry, leaving Hermione to her thoughts.

The next morning Hermione sat beside Harry at breakfast with a determined look on her face, “You’re right, Harry. I need to talk to the house-elves and find out what they want if I’m going to help them. Do you know how to get to the kitchens? I would like to talk to the elves that work for Hogwarts.”

Harry smiled, “I’ll check the map later today, and see if it shows how to get to the kitchens.”

The next several weeks passed fairly uneventfully, the Marauders map had shown how to get to the kitchen so Hermione had been spending time talking to the Hogwarts house elves whenever she could, Ron was more than happy to accompany her when he found out that the house elves were eager to feed any student that entered their domain. Sirius had also sent Winky to see them when Harry had mentioned S.P.E.W. in the letter he sent to tell Sirius and Remus about his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes and Moody turning Draco into a ferret. In contrast to Dobby, who was happy to be free of his former master and serving a new one, Winky was miserable and missed the family that she had served for all of her life. Hermione was incensed with Mr. Crouch all over again when she saw how unhappy Winky was, but Winky would not hear a word against him.

Hermione wasn’t able to spend as much time talking to the house-elves as she wanted because of how much work they were being assigned in their classes. They had weekly essays in History of Magic, Professor Flitwick had asked them to read three extra books in preparation for learning Summoning Charms and Professor Snape had them researching antidotes. He had hinted that he might be poisoning them before Christmas so they took their research very seriously. Mad-Eye Moody topped his first class by performing the Imperius curse on his students in his second one, so they would know what it was like and could try to resist it. Harry discovered, to his surprise, that he had a knack for resisting the Imperius, resulting in Moody putting him through it until he could throw it off entirely. When Harry told his dad about this, Severus chuckled.

“I’m not surprised that you were able to resist the Imperius,” he said, “your stubbornness even tried Moony’s patience. We never were able to get you to do anything that you really didn’t want to do. It’s a good thing that you were so cute, or you might have found yourself back on the Dursley’s doorstep.”

Harry grinned at his dad, “You would have had to find them first.”

Severus quirked an eyebrow, “Oh, I could have found them if I wanted to. You see there’s this thing called magic …”

“You know that you love me too much to want to get rid of me,” Harry said cheekily.

“Moony would never have let me get rid of you, you mean, you were just too cute,” Severus smirked. “Of course you’re not so cute anymore, and I still know how to perform a locator spell …”

Harry laughed and then froze as a knock sounded on Severus’ office door. Harry quietly pulled his invisibility cloak over himself, while his dad crossed to the door. Severus opened the door to let Draco Malfoy in, and Harry quickly slipped out behind the other boy before his dad shut the door again.

“I thought I heard you talking to someone, Uncle Severus,” Draco said as he looked around the empty office in surprise.

“I was taking a Floo call from Remus when you knocked,” Severus said, as he sat back down at his desk, “but I’m at your disposal now.”

Severus conjured up some tea and biscuits, and listened to Draco tell him about his day and complain about Defense Against the Dark Arts. Draco had not managed to resist the Imperius curse that Mad-Eye had cast on him and he had found the experience very disturbing.


	10. Halloween Strikes Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween arrives and the start of the Triwizard Tournament

“Harry, would Professor Snape really try to poison us to test our knowledge of antidotes?” Neville asked one morning in late October as they were on their way to Care of Magical Creatures.

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” said Harry ruefully. “He believes that experience is the best teacher, rather like Professor Moody now that I think about it.”

“Or he believes that fear is the best teacher,” Seamus said as he caught up with them. “Snape is bloody terrifying!”

Harry snorted, “He’d love to hear you say that. I think he enjoys scaring us.”

They were still working with the Blast-Ended Skrewts in Care of Magical Creatures, which meant that Harry had left Godric behind in the dorm., the snake had refused to accompany Harry to Hagrid’s class after the first lesson with the skrewts. Hagrid himself was delighted with how well the skrewts were doing, despite no one having figured out what they eat, and he announced to the class that they were to come down to his hut on alternate evening to observe the skrewts and make notes on their behaviour.

Draco Malfoy flatly refused to do as Hagrid suggested, until Hagrid reminded him about the ferret incident, suggesting that he might follow Professor Moody’s example. It was satisfying to see Hagrid get the better of Draco, after the way Draco had tried to get him fired the year before, but Harry wished he had found another way to do it. Draco was obviously still traumatized by the whole thing. Harry figured that was the only reason Hagrid’s threat had worked, since everyone knew that Hagrid had been expelled in his third year and couldn’t possibly do a transfiguration of that level.

When they arrived back in the entrance hall after their Care of Magical Creatures class, they found a crowd of students milling around a large sign that had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. Ron, being the tallest of the Gryffindors, read the sign over the heads of the crowd. It turned out to be an announcement of the arrival of the delegations from Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang in a weeks time, on the 30th of October. Harry’s eyes widened in dawning horror.

“October 30th? As in the day before Halloween?” he said anxiously. “They’re going to start the Tournament on Halloween? But something bad always happens on Halloween.”

Hermione huffed, “You’re overreacting, Harry. October 31st is just another day.”

Harry stared at her, “In our first year we fought a troll that Quirrelmort let into the castle on Halloween, in second year the Chamber of Secrets was opened and we found Mrs. Norris petrified and hung on the wall and then last year, Halloween was when Sirius made it into the castle and sliced up the Fat Lady trying to get at Wormtail. Something bad always happens on Halloween, Hermione.”

“That doesn’t mean that something’s going to happen this year,” said Hermione. “It’s just coincidence that all those things happened on Halloween. Anyways, even if you’re right there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s not like they’ll move the beginning of the tournament to a different day on our say so.”

Harry drooped, “I guess you’re right.”

He followed Ron who had started to push his way through the crowd to reach the staircase, listening to the chatter of the students around him discussing the tournament. That was the only topic of conversation over the following week, the Triwizard Tournament. The school was full of rumours about who would be entering the tournament, what it would involve and what the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would be like. Harry was heartily sick of it by the time Friday rolled around, and it was time to gather in front of the castle to greet the delegations from the other schools. Especially since he was still expecting something to go wrong the next day.

The Beauxbatons delegation arrived first in a large powder blue carriage pulled by a dozen winged horses, that were about the size of elephants. The Headmistress, Madame Maxine, was as large as Hagrid and she was accompanied by a dozen boys and girls. Beauxbatons was obviously in a warmer climate that Hogwarts, since the students were shivering in their fine silken robes and none of them were wearing cloaks. The Durmstrang students were better dressed for the weather, when they arrived in a large ship that rose up out of the waters of the lake, their uniforms including a thick fur cloak. The arrival of the Durmstrang delegation proved to be more exciting than Harry had expected, as one of the students accompanying the headmaster, Professor Karkaroff, was none other than Victor Krum, Bulgaria’s seeker.

Krum drew a lot of attention during the Welcome Feast, although Ron was distracted from his hero worship of the seeker by a student from Beauxbaton, a girl with long silvery-blonde hair and large, deep blue eyes, who came to their table to ask for some bouillabaisse. Ron was sure that the girl was a veela, and she did seem to be garnering a lot of attention from many of the boys in the Great Hall.

Shortly after the visit from the Beauxbatons girl to their table, two more people arrived at the Welcome Feast, Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch. When the feast was over Dumbledore introduced them and explained that the two wizards had worked on arranging the Triwizard Tournament and were to act as judges, along with the Heads of the three participating schools. Dumbledore then explained that the Tournament would consist of three tasks spaced throughout the school year and revealed the Goblet of Fire that would select a champion for each of the three schools. Harry groaned when he heard that the names of champions would be revealed by the goblet at the Halloween Feast the next day.

“Just wait, something is going to happen when the champions are selected tomorrow,” he whispered to Hermione and Ron. “They’re just asking for trouble, doing this on Halloween.”

Hermione shook her head disapprovingly at Harry and then turned her attention back to Dumbledore, who was explaining the precaution he had taken to ensure that no underage student would be able to enter their name into the Goblet of Fire.

“An Age Line!” Fred Weasley said, as they all made their way across the Hall, heading for Gryffindor tower. “Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn’t it? And once your name’s in that goblet, you’re laughing - it can’t tell whether you’re seventeen or not!”

“But I don’t think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance,” said Hermione, “we just haven’t learned enough …”

“Speak for yourself,” said George shortly. “You’ll try and get in, won’t you, Harry?”

Harry shouted, “Why does everyone think that I want to enter the tournament? I just want a nice quiet school year where I don’t have to face mortal danger, for once! Why is that so difficult to understand!”

Godric stuck his head out of Harry’s sleeve and hissed at George for upsetting his owner and Harry stomped off, talking soothingly to Godric in Parseltongue as he went. Ron and Hermione hurried after Harry, catching up to him when he stopped at the doors to let Professor Karkaroff and his students walk through first. Karkaroff glanced at Harry carelessly as he thanked him and then froze. Karkaroff stared at Harry, who was still talking to Godric, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. Harry realized that the Durmstrang contingent had stopped and Karkaroff’s gaze was flickering between the scar on his forehead and the snake in his hand.

“Yes, I am Harry Potter and I’m a Parcelmouth,” Harry said impatiently. “Now if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to leave the hall so that I can get to bed, it’s been a long day.”

“You heard the boy, Karkaroff,” said Moody from behind Harry. “Unless you have something to say to Potter, you might want to move. You’re blocking the doorway.”

Karkaroff’s face drained of colour when he saw Moody and he quickly led his students from the Great Hall, without saying anything.

The next morning Ron and Neville were up early, excited to see the Goblet of Fire where it had been placed in the entrance hall. At first Harry refused to get up with them.

“I’m going to spend the day in bed,” he declared, wrapping himself firmly in his blankets. “If I don’t get up then nothing can happen to me.”

“Come on, Harry. Don’t you want to see who’s putting their names in the Goblet?” said Ron. “Fred and George should be trying the Aging Potion this morning and I want to know if it works.”

“I don’t really care what names get put into the Goblet, as long as mine’s not one of them,” Harry responded, but he reluctantly agreed to accompany Ron, Neville and Hermione downstairs.

When they got to the Entrance Hall they found about twenty people milling around examining the Goblet of Fire. Harry skirted the edge of the hall, making it quite clear that he wasn’t about to go anywhere near the Goblet that had been placed in the centre, sitting on the stool normally used for the Sorting Hat. A thin gold line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction. Ron ignored Harry’s antics and eagerly asked a third-year girl if anyone had put their name in the goblet yet.

“All the Durmstrang lot,” she replied. “But I haven’t seen anyone from Hogwarts yet.”

“Bet some of them put it in last night after we’d all gone to bed,” said Harry, interested in spite of himself. “I would’ve if it had been me … wouldn’t have wanted everyone watching. What if the goblet had just gobbed you right back out again?”

“I thought you weren’t interested in entering?” Neville commented wryly.

Harry flushed, “I’m not, I just meant that if I was wanting to enter, that’s how I would have done it.”

Just then, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan came hurrying down the stairs, looking extremely excited. Fred whispered that they had just taken the Aging Potion and were going to put their names in the goblet. A few minutes later the entrance hall was filled with laughter as when Fred and George were thrown out of the circle around the goblet, sporting identical long white beards.

Ron whispered to Harry, as they watched Professor Dumbledore send the twins off to Madam Pomfrey to be fixed, “Aren’t you glad that you didn’t stay in bed. I wouldn’t have missed that for anything.”

After breakfast, which was full of discussion about which of the Hogwarts student had entered their names into the goblet, Harry and his friends decided to go visit Hagrid. Harry wanted to introduce Hagrid to Godric properly and Hermione wanted to talk to Hagrid about the house-elves and her ideas for S.P.E.W. As they were leaving the castle they were passed by the Beauxbaton students, who were on their way to put their names into the Goblet of Fire. Ron stared after them until they disappeared from sight into the entrance hall.

Hagrid was enthusiastic about Harry’s new pet and enjoyed talking to Godric with Harry as an interpreter. Hermione then talked to Hagrid about everything she had learned about house-elves, both from her reading in the library and talking to Dobby, Winky and the Hogwarts elves in the kitchen.

“It’d be doin’ ‘em an unkindness to try to free ‘em, Hermione,” Hagrid said gravely as he darned his socks. “It’s in their nature ter look after humans, that’s what they like, see? Yeh’d be makin’ ‘em unhappy ter take away their work, an insultin’ ‘em if yeh tried ter pay ‘em.”

“So I’ve gathered from talking to them,” Hermione said reluctantly. “The Hogwarts elves almost stopped talking to me when I tried to tell them that they should be paid for their work and it took me weeks to get them to listen to my apology. But something needs to be done for them, it’s not right the way they are treated! They are people, but they can be bought and sold like property, and nobody cares what is done to them. Just look at Dobby, the Malfoy’s were awful to him, but he couldn’t even say anything bad about them without being forced to punish himself.”

“Maybe there should be something like the S.P.C.A for the House Elves, instead of S.P.E.W. we could start the S.P.C.E.” Harry suggested. “Although, I’m not sure how to get around the house elves not being able to speak against their owners. Dobby still has trouble saying anything bad about the Malfoys.”

They discussed house-elf rights for a while longer without resolving anything, before moving on to talking about the Triwizard Tournament over lunch. Hagrid was just as enthusiastic about the tournament as Ron and Neville, he almost let something slip about the first task, talking about them seeing stuff that they had never seen before, but he remembered himself in time. The students tried to get Hagrid to say more and Ron and Neville teased Harry about his fear of Halloween. Harry earnestly explained to Hagrid his theory that starting the Tournament on Halloween was just asking for some disaster to strike at the feast that night.

At half past five, it was time to go back up to the castle for the Halloween feast, Hagrid was going to go with them but he ended up joining Madame Maxime as she escorted her students to the feast. As they watched them walk away Ron realized the reason for Hagrid’s attempt to dress up that day, and for the awful cologne that they had to convince him to wash off before they left his hut, Hagrid fancied the Beauxbatons Headmistress.

When they entered the Great Hall, they saw that the Goblet of Fire had been moved to stand in front of Dumbledore’s chair at the teachers’ table. Harry tried to ignore that reminder of the tournament and concentrate on the food in front of him, but the feast seemed to take much longer than it usually did. He found himself impatient for the evening to end, so that whatever was going to happen would, and he could be done with it.

At long last, the feast was over and Dumbledore got to his feet. It was time for the selection of the champions. The first name that the goblet released was the champion for Durmstrang, Victor Krum. A storm of applause greeted this news and Krum rose from where he was sitting at the Slytherin table and left the hall to wait in the antechamber that Dumbledore had indicated as the place where the champions would receive their instructions. The champion for Beauxbatons was selected next, Fleur Delacour, who turned out to be the veela like girl who had attracted Ron’s attention. When Cedric Diggory, much to Hufflepuff’s excitement, was announced as the Hogwarts champion, Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He sat back happily, ready at last to just enjoy the excitement of the tournament as just another student.

When the applause for Diggory finally died down, Dumbledore began a speech, only to stop a moment later. The fire in the goblet had turned red again and another piece of parchment emerged from it on the end of a long flame. Dumbledore reached out and seized the parchment, staring at the name written upon it. Finally, Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out -

“Harry Potter.”

“I knew it!” Harry cried, as everyone in the hall stared at him. “I knew something bad was going to happen tonight!”


	11. The Reluctant Champion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's name has come out of the Goblet of Fire. Can Severus get him out of having to compete?

Harry looked up at the top table, where Professor McGonagall had gotten up from her seat to whisper urgently in Professor Dumbledore’s ear. He let his gaze wander down the table to Professor Snape, who looked furious.

“I didn’t put my name in,” Harry declared desperately, as he turned his attention back to Dumbledore and McGonagall. “You can ask Ron and Neville, they’ve been with me the whole time that the Goblet of Fire was out.”

Dumbledore nodded to Professor McGonagall and looked back at Harry. “Still, your name did come out of the cup, Harry,” he said calmly. “Please come up here.”

Harry reluctantly left his seat, picking up Godric from the table and letting the snake wind itself around his left hand. He felt the weight of everyone’s eyes on him as he made his way to the top table, the buzzing of the room growing louder as he went. When he made it to the teacher’s table Dumbledore directed him through the door that the other champions had already gone through. He made his way along the teacher’s table, risking another glance at Professor Snape on his way past. As he briefly met the Potion Professor’s angry gaze, Harry wished, once again, that his dad wasn’t so good at pretending to hate him.

Severus watched Harry disappear into the antechamber, firmly suppressing his desire to vent his anger that his son was being forced into a dangerous competition by Dumbledore, who was evidently going to just sit back and let it happen. He did not dare to reveal how much he cared about what happened to the boy, especially now that the Dark Lord was growing stronger. Severus carefully waited, while Ludo Bagman hurried excitedly after Harry, and Professor Dumbledore followed with the other judges shortly afterwards, finally falling in behind Professor McGonagall when she went after Dumbledore. Severus’ eyes darted around the small room as he entered it on McGonagall’s heels, noting Bagman hovering by Harry and the other champions standing grouped around the fire, staring at the younger boy. Evidently, Bagman had told them what had happened and they weren’t very happy about it.

Fleur immediately appealed to her Headmistress, and Severus noticed Harry’s anger at being called a little boy with a ripple of carefully concealed amusement. He then turned his attention to Dumbledore as the other two Heads complained about Hogwarts having two champions while their schools only had one each.

“We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore,” said Karkaroff. “Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools.”

“Don’t blame Dumbledore for Potter’s determination to break rules, Karkaroff,” said Snape softly, his eyes alight with pretended malice. “He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here -”

“Thank you Severus,” said Dumbledore firmly and Snape went quiet.

Dumbledore turned to Harry. “Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire, Harry?” he asked calmly.

“I already told you that I didn’t!” said Harry indignantly. “You can ask Ron and Neville if you don’t believe me!”

“Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?” said Professor Dumbledore.

“No,” said Harry vehemently. “Though  _ someone _ obviously put my name in for me without my permission!”

Severus scoffed, “Potter is obviously lying. Albus, surely you aren’t going to reward the boy’s blatant disregard for the rules by allowing him to compete in the Tournament.”

Professor McGonagall swelled with anger, “Harry could not have possibly crossed the Age Line himself, and as Professor Dumbledore believes that he did not persuade an older student to do it for him, I’m sure that should be good enough for everybody else!”

Snape sneered at her. He had thought that he could count on Minerva being his ally in preventing Harry from competing, but she seemed more concerned with protecting Albus’ reputation than protecting the boy from danger. Before Severus could make another attempt to convince Dumbledore to keep Harry from the tournament, Karkaroff appealed to Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman for their opinion on the matter, as the two neutral judges.

“We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament,” Mr. Crouch declared curtly, to Severus’ dismay.

Snape snorted, “Potter broke the rules to enter the Tournament, but since he’s Harry Potter, of course he’s going to be allowed to compete, even if he is too young. Heaven forbid that the Boy-Who-Lived not be the centre of attention for once in his life.”

“The age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure, and Harry’s name did come out of the goblet,” said Bagman.

“I insist upon resubmitting the names of the rest of my students,” said Karkaroff. “You will set up the Goblet of Fire once more, and we will continue to adding names until each school has two champions. It’s only fair, Dumbledore.”

“But Karkaroff, it doesn’t work like that,” said Bagman. “The Goblet of Fire’s just gone out - it won’t reignite until the start of the next tournament -”

“- in which Durmsttrang will most certainly not be competing!” exploded Karkaroff. “After all our meetings and negotiations and compromises, I little expected something of this nature to occur! I have half a mind to leave now!”

“Empty threat, Karkaroff,” growled a voice from near the door. “You can’t leave your champion now. He’s got to compete. They’ve all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?”

Severus looked over at Moody, who had just entered the room and was limping towards the fire. Moody at least seemed to understand the significance of Harry’s name coming from the Goblet and Severus was beginning to be afraid that he was right about Harry being bound to compete in the Tournament now, despite his age. Karkaroff and Madame Maxime on the other hand still could not see past the fact that Hogwarts now had two champions, while their schools only had one each. Karkaroff threatened to lodge complaints with the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards.

“If anyone’s got reason to complain, it’s Potter,” growled Moody, “but … funny thing … I don’t hear him saying a word.”

“I’d complain if I could get a word in edgewise,” said Harry. “I didn’t put my name in, and I don’t want to compete in the Tournament, but apparently I have to because I’ve been bound to a magical contract without my permission! I think whoever put my name in to the Goblet of Fire is trying to get me killed!”

“So you figured that out did you?” Moody said, studying Harry with interest.

Karkaroff scoffed, “We all know that Professor Moody considers the morning wasted if he hasn’t discovered six plots to murder him before breakfast and he has apparently succeeded in teaching his students to fear assassination as well.”

“Imagining things, am I?” growled Moody. “Seeing things, eh? It was a skilled witch or wizard who put the boys name in that goblet …”

As Severus listened to Moody’s thoughts of how the goblet had been manipulated into picking Harry’s name as the fourth champion, he found himself glad that Albus had hired the man. He could do without Moody’s watchful eye but at least there was someone else who took this threat to Harry seriously. Still, he was glad when Albus stepped in when Moody made a reference to Karkaroff’s past. Severus wasn’t so happy when Dumbledore made it clear that they had no choice, Harry had to compete in the Tournament. The rest of the meeting went quickly, as Crouch finally told the Champions about the first task, which would take place on November 24th.

Harry headed back up to the Gryffindor tower reluctantly, dreading the celebration that he knew was waiting for him there. In less than a month he was going to be facing an unknown task that was designed to test his courage, as part of a Tournament that he had never wanted to enter. He had never felt less like celebrating, especially since he was certain that this was all part of the Dark Lord’s plot to get him killed. And on top of all that his conversation with Cedric had made it clear that hardly anyone would believe that he hadn’t chosen any of this. ‘Maybe they will believe me when I’m killed,’ Harry thought darkly.

When Harry arrived at the Fat Lady’s portrait he found that she had company. He recognized the wizened witch that shared the portraits frame as one of the paintings from the room where the champions had gathered. To Harry’s dismay, both she and the Fat Lady were looking down at him with the keenest interest.

“Well, well, well,” said the Fat Lady, “Violet’s just told me everything. Who’s just been chosen as school champion, then?”

“Cedric has,” responded Harry. “Technically, I’m the champion for a fourth unnamed school. They really should rename it the Tetrawizard Tournament. Balderdash.”

The Fat Lady swung forward on her hinges and Harry climbed through the portrait hole into the common room, where he was met by a blast of noise. Next thing he knew he was being pulled inside the common room by about a dozen pair of hands, and was facing the whole of Gryffindor House, all of whom were screaming, applauding, and whistling.

“You should’ve told us you’d entered!” bellowed Fred.

“How did you do it without getting a beard? Brilliant!” roared George.

“I didn’t do anything,” Harry said. “Someone else put my -”

Angelina swooped down on him, “Oh if it couldn’t be me, at least it’s a Gryffindor -”

“You’ll be able to pay back Diggory for that last Quidditch match, Harry!” shrieked Katie Bell.

Harry gave up. He obviously wasn’t going to be able to get anyone to listen to him. He tried to work his way through the excited crowd towards the stairs to the boys dormitories, looking for Ron, Neville and Hermione as he went. Everytime he headed for the staircase, the crowd would close ranks around him, forcing food and drinks on him and asking him how he had tricked Dumbledore’s Age Line to get his name into the goblet. Finally, Harry managed to shake everyone off and climb up to the dormitory, almost flattening the Creevey brothers as they attempted to waylay him at the foot of the stairs.

To his relief, Ron and Neville were in the dormitory when he got there.

“Am I glad to see you two!” Harry exclaimed after slamming the door behind him. “It’s a madhouse down there and no one’s listening to me.”

He realized that he was still wearing the Gryffindor banner that Lee Jordan had tied around him and tried to take it off but it was knotted very tightly. Neville came over to help him while Ron lay on his bed without moving.

“So,” he said, when Neville had finally managed to get the banner off of Harry. “Congratulations.:

“What d’you mean, congratulations?” said Harry, staring at Ron.

“Well … no one else got across the Age Line, said Ron. “Not even Fred and George. What did you use - the Invisibility Cloak?”

“What are you going on about, Ron? I didn’t put my name in the goblet! Someone else did it.”

Ron raised his eyebrows.

“What would they do that for?”

“Why do you think, Ron!” Harry said impatiently. “Riddle wants me dead and I end up entered in a Tournament that was discontinued because of the mounting death toll. Obviously, I’m meant to end up dead!”

Ron’s eyebrows rose so high that they were in danger of disappearing into his hair.

“Aren’t you being a little melodramatic Harry?” he said. “You can tell me the truth you know. I won’t tell anyone else if you don’t want me to but I don’t know why you’re bothering to lie about it. It’s not like you got into any trouble for it, did you?”

“Ron!” Harry exclaimed, starting to get angry. “Think for a moment. Do you really think I would put my name into that goblet after Dad went out of his way to warn me not to? Did you see how angry he was when my name was called?”

“I did,” interjected Neville with a shiver. “Snape’s bloody terrifying when he’s angry. Does he think you put your name into the goblet?”

“I don’t know,” sighed Harry as he flopped down on his bed. “He acted like he did, but he would have done that anyway. You know how he is about hiding our relationship from everyone. He did try to keep me from having to compete, though. I think he agrees with Moody that this is all part of some plot to do me in.”

Ron sat up and stared at Harry, “You’re serious aren’t you? You really think that You-Know-Who somehow got you entered into the Triwizard Tournament to get you killed? You really didn’t enter your name into the goblet, did you?”

“I told you that Harry wouldn’t do something like that without telling us, Ron,” said Neville.

“So what are you going to do?” Ron asked Harry in a hushed voice.

“I don’t know,” Harry said slowly, stroking Godric who had slithered out of his sleeve. “I have to compete, there’s no way out of it, apparently, so I guess I’ll just do the best I can, and try not to die.”


	12. I have to fight a dragon!?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry finds out what the first task entails.

The other boys were still asleep when Harry woke up early the next morning. He dressed quietly and retrieved his Invisibility cloak from his trunk before shaking Ron awake.

“I’m going to go and talk to The Professor. Can you cover for me until I get back?” Harry said quietly, once he was sure that his friend was awake.

“Of course,” Ron said. “Give me a moment and I’ll go open the portrait door for you. Why don’t you wake up Neville while I get dressed? You can follow us out when we head down to breakfast.”

Soon Neville and Ron were heading down the stairs with Harry silently following them covered by his cloak. They found Hermione reading in the mostly empty common room, while she waited to accompany them downstairs for breakfast.

“You’re up early for a Sunday,” Hermione commented when she saw the two boys. “Where’s Harry?”

“Harry’s sleeping in. He was pretty worn out after the excitement of last night,” Ron said, with a wink.

They climbed out of the portrait hole, and headed down to the Great Hall, Ron and Neville filling Hermione in on everything Harry had told them about what had happened the night before, with whispered additions from Harry whenever he thought of something he had forgotten to mention earlier.

“Well, of course Harry didn’t enter himself,” Hermione said when they finished. “I knew that right away. But the question is, who did put his name in? Moody’s right that no student could have done it … they’d never be able to fool the Goblet, or get over Dumbledore’s Age Line …”

“Maybe Dad will have some ideas,” whispered Harry. “I’ll let you know what he has to say about it later.”

Harry headed down the staircase leading to the dungeons, still hidden under his cloak, while Hermione, Ron and Neville went into the Great Hall. Soon Harry was knocking on the door to his dad’s quarters, after checking to make sure the corridor was empty. To his relief Severus did not seem to be upset when he let him in.

“Moony, Paddy, what are you doing here?” Harry exclaimed as he pulled off his cloak, surprised to see the two wizards visiting his dad so early in the morning.

“Severus called us last night to let us know that you had been entered into the tournament, so we’re here for a strategy session,” Remus replied to Harry.

“I didn’t put my name in the goblet,” Harry said hurriedly. “I wouldn’t do that, especially after both you and Dad told me not to -”

“We know that you didn’t put your name in, Harry.” Remus reassured him. “We’re trying to figure out who did and how to keep you safe, now that you have to compete in the tournament.”

“I’ll bet it was Karkaroff who put Harry’s name in,” Sirius said, returning to the conversation that had been interrupted by Harry’s arrival. “I mean he was a Death Eater, so he’s probably trying to get back into Voldemort’s good graces after how he bought his way out of Azkaban with information on his fellow Death Eaters.”

“If he did then he’s a really good actor,” Harry said doubtfully. “He seemed furious about me being Hogwarts second champion. He tried to keep me from competing.”

“I doubt that Karkaroff is the one who put Harry’s name in the goblet,” said Severus contemptuously. “Karkaroff is too much of a coward to attempt something like that under Albus’ nose, but I will be keeping an eye on him.”

“Do you have any idea who entered Harry, if it wasn’t Karkaroff?” asked Remus.

“I’m not sure, most of the Death Eaters who would be able and willing to attempt something like that are in Azkaban. The ones who managed to remain free have too much to lose to risk being caught openly supporting the Dark Lord before he manages to return to his full power,” Severus said. “We know that Pettigrew is with the Dark Lord now and he would be capable of sneaking into Hogwarts without detection, but I don’t think that he is powerful enough to fool the goblet into choosing a fourth companion.”

“I think you’re right about that,” said Remus. “Peter was never that skilled with charms, even before he spent twelve years as a rat. Still it is possible that Riddle has taught him some tricks.”

Sirius growled, “We should have killed that rat when we had the chance. Harry, you still have the Marauder’s map, right?”

“I do,” Harry said eagerly. “I’ll keep an eye on it and let you all know if I see any names that don’t belong.”

“Make sure that you tell us if you do, and don’t try to go after them yourself,” warned Remus. “After all the whole point of all of this is to keep you alive, Harry.”

“Speaking of which, do you know what the first task Harry has to face is?” asked Sirius, turning to Severus.

Severus nodded, “Dumbledore had to tell Hagrid about it, since he will be working with the organizers to have everything ready for it, and since Hagrid is incapable of keeping a secret, I know that the first task involves dragons. The champions will have to retrieve something from a dragon’s nest.”

Harry blanched, “Dragons! I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

“You can do this, Harry,” said Remus encouragingly. “The thing to remember that dragons are very strong and they have powerful magic so a direct attack is unlikely to work unless you can hit them in a vulnerable spot, like their eyes.”

“That’s right,” said Sirius. “The Conjunctivitis curse will work on a dragon. If you blind it then you should be able to get past it.”

“If you are very careful,” Severus said. “The dragon will still be dangerous. Even if it can’t see you, it could still hurt you if you get in its way while it’s thrashing around from the effects of the spell. The conjunctivitis curse can be quite painful, and dragons are very large and heavy, you wouldn’t want one to step on you.”

Harry thought for a moment, “I wish I could use my cloak, then I wouldn’t have to worry about trying to hit the dragon with a curse, but we’re only allowed to have our wands.”

“You can do a lot with a wand,” said Remus. “Including using a spell to get you what you need.”

“That’s right!” exclaimed Harry. “Flitwick has us learning Summoning Charms next! I’ll be able to fetch my cloak using a Summoning Charm and then the dragon won’t be able to attack me because it won’t know where I am!”

“The dragon will be intelligent enough to realize that you are still around, even if it can’t see you. You might want to come up with something to lure it away from its nest,” Remus said.

“I know what I’m going to do,” said Harry. “Now I just need to make sure that I master Summoning Charms before the 24th.”

After a quick breakfast in his dad’s quarters while they discussed his idea on how to get past the dragon, Harry made his way back to the Gryffindor Tower. He was still nervous about having to face a dragon in three weeks time, but at least he now knew what he was going to do about it. When Harry got to the portrait of the Fat Lady he found Neville and Ron hanging around near it, trying to look casual as they waited for him so that he could enter the common room without being detected. Soon the three boys were climbing through the portrait hole, with Harry still hidden under the cloak. Collecting Hermione as they passed through the common room, they quickly made their way into the fourth year boys dorm, so that Harry could get out from under his cloak and tell them what he had learned about the first task.

“Dragons!” exclaimed Ron. “Harry, whoever put your name in the goblet - I - I reckon they’re trying to do you in!”

Harry looked at him oddly, “I told you that last night.”

Ron looked abashed, “I know, but I wasn’t exactly thinking straight last night. It’s not that I didn’t believe you, exactly. It just that everyone wanted to be in the tournament, to have a chance at that thousand Galleon prize, not to mention the status of being the school’s champion. It was hard to see past all that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Ron,” said Harry. “As long as you believe me now.”

Ron nodded, “So how are you going to get past a bloody great dragon. Dragons are tough, Charlie once told me that it takes at least four wizards to stun one.”

“I’ve got it all figured out. The first step is to learn to cast a Summoning Charm …”

Harry spent the next couple of weeks attempting to master Summoning Charms, which were giving him a lot of trouble for some reason. He spent most of his time, in the library with Hermione, Ron and Neville trying to summon things to himself. Hermione kept demonstrating the charm by summoning books from the shelves and soon both Ron and Neville were able to summon what they wanted most of the time while Harry still hadn’t managed it once.

“Nevermind, Harry, I’m sure you’ll get it once Professor Flitwick explains it in class,” Hermione said comfortingly, after Harry had failed at yet another attempt to summon her quill.

“I hope so,” said Harry. “I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.”

“I’m looking forward to that class,” said Neville as they headed back to the common room after being kicked out of the library because it was almost curfew. “It will be the first time I’ve gone into a class already knowing the spell we’re going to be working on.”

To Harry’s relief, the work he had been putting into learning Summoning Charms had finally paid off just before the end of Friday’s Charms class, so he was in a good mood when they left the class to go to lunch. Which was just as well, since they had Double Potions with the Slytherins that afternoon. The Slytherins were determined to punish Harry for daring to become school champion and they had been particularly nasty during their last last Double Potions class. Harry and Ron had spent the class rating the Slytherin’s taunts on originality and style but it was still difficult to listen to them all.

When the Gryffindors arrived at the Potions classroom after lunch they found the Slytherins waiting outside, each and every one of them wearing a large badge on the front of his or her robes. Each of the badges bore the same message, in luminous red letters: Support CEDRIC DIGGORY - The REAL Hogwarts Champion

“Like them, Potter?” said Malfoy loudly as Harry approached. “And this isn’t all they do - look?”

He pressed the badge on his chest, and the message vanished to be replaced by one that glowed green: POTTER STINKS

Malfoy grinned as the other Slytherins howled with laughter. He had been reluctant to join in on baiting Potter the week before, after all the times he had failed to get the better of the Gryffindor, but for once the taunting actually seemed to be getting to Potter. Emboldened by this success he had come up with the badges, which had been more work than he had anticipated. The other Slytherins pressed their badges and the message POTTER STINKS shone brightly around them. Draco laughed at the expression on Potter’s face and decided that the extra work had been worth it.

“Oh very funny,” said Granger, “really witty.”

“Want one, Granger?” said Malfoy, holding out a badge to her. “I’ve got loads. But don’t touch my hand, now. I’ve just washed it, you see; don’t want a Mudblood sliming it up.”

“Watch what you say, Malfoy! Remember what happened last time you called Hermione that!” Ron yelled, pulling out his wand.

Draco blanched and hurriedly pulled out his own wand. He did not want to end up vomiting slugs again. The students around them scrambled out of the way and Harry grabbed Ron.

“Ron, you don’t want to get caught by Snape dueling in the halls. You know how he loves to have an excuse to take points away from Gryffindor. Let me deal with this.” Harry then turned to Draco. “We will be talking about your lack of manners at another time, Draco, and you will apologize to Hermione for your language, but I assume that you would like to save that for when we have less of an audience,” he said, gesturing to the Slytherins, who had retreated down the hallway away from the threatened exchange of hexes.

Draco glared at Harry as the other boy leaned down and picked up the badge that Draco had offered to Hermione from where fallen on the floor when Draco had pulled out his wand. 

Examining it with interest he commented, “These are rather clever, you must have put a lot of work into them. It’s too bad that you couldn’t come up with a better insult for the flip side, I’m afraid that I can only give it a 2 out of 10, and that’s being generous. Still, I do like the original message, Cedric is the real Hogwarts Champion. I’m just trying to survive this thing.”

Harry carefully pinned the badge, which was displaying Support CEDRIC DIGGORY again, to his robe, ignoring the Slytherin's startled looks. Before anyone could say anything else, Snape arrived and let them into the classroom.


	13. Rita Skeeter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Wand Weighing ceremony and Rita Skeeter

“Antidotes!” said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly. “You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test on …”

Severus’ eyes met Harry’s, and Harry knew what was coming. His dad was going to poison him. It made sense, Harry knew that he was one of the few students in the class that his dad could count on to make the antidote properly so that they wouldn’t be in any danger. Although, he was sure that his dad also had a bezoar ready, just in case. Harry started reviewing his recipe, determined to do his best in brewing the antidote, this was no class for fooling around in.

And then a knock on the dungeon door interrupted Harry’s concentration. It was Colin Creevey; he edged into the room beaming at Harry, and walked up to Snape’s desk at the front of the room.

“Yes?” said Snape curtly.

“Please, sir, I’m supposed to take Harry Potter upstairs.”

Severus stared down his hooked nose at Colin, whose smile faded from his eager face.

“Potter has another hour of Potions to complete,” said Snape coldly. “He will come upstairs when this class is finished.”

Colin went pink.

“Sir - sir, Mr. Bagman wants him,” he said nervously. “All the champions have got to go, I think they want to take photographs …”

Once Snape let him go, Harry quickly packed up his things and left the room with Colin. As soon as the two boys were gone, Severus snapped at the rest of the students to get to work on their antidotes, before stepping into his office next to the classroom, and sending off a message with his Patronus.

Harry entered the small classroom that Colin had brought him to and looked around. Three desks had been pushed together at the front of the room and covered with a long length of velvet with five chairs set behind them. The rest of the desks had been moved to the back of the classroom, leaving a large space in front of the velvet covered desks clear. Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of the chairs talking to a witch wearing magenta robes, while the other three champions stood around the room. Fleur and Cedric were talking together and Victor Krum was standing moodily by himself in the corner of the room. The last person in the room was a paunchy man holding a large black camera, evidently Colin had been right about them taking pictures.

Suddenly, Bagman spotted Harry standing in the doorway and got up quickly, bounding forward. He told Harry that they were there for the wand weighing ceremony, to ensure that the champions’ wands are fully functional, to be followed by a photo shoot for the Daily Prophet. It turned out that the woman in magenta was Rita Skeeter. Harry brightened when Bagman introduced him to the reporter.

“Rita Skeeter? You’re the one who wrote that brilliant article about Lockhart! I’m delighted to have the opportunity to thank you in person,” Harry enthusiastically shook her hand.

“I’m glad you liked my article,” said Rita Skeeter. “I would like a little word with you before we start. The youngest champion, you know … to add a bit of colour.”

She grabbed Harry’s upper arm with the hand that he had just shaken, and steered him out of the room again, opening a nearby door.

“We don’t want to be in there with all that noise,” she said. “Let’s see … ah, yes, this is nice and cozy.”

It was a broom cupboard. Harry stared at her.

“I’m sorry, I have an aversion to cupboards,” Harry said as he twisted out of her grip, and backed away from the door. “I’d much rather deal with the noise.”

“Harry! There you are!”

Harry turned in surprise, “What are you doing here, Moony?”

“I heard that you had something to do with the tournament going on today, so I thought that you might need me. Who is this?” Remus turned his mild gaze towards Rita Skeeter.

“This is Rita Skeeter, she wants to interview me, I think. She was trying to drag me into that cupboard,” said Harry indignantly. 

“It looks like I got here just in time, then,” Remus said. “Miss Skeeter, my name is Remus Lupin and Harry guardians have asked me to be their representative in the magical world, since as Muggles they are at a disadvantage when it comes to protecting Harry’s interests here. Since Harry is a minor you may only interview him if I am present and I insist on seeing anything you write about him before it is published. If you do not give me or Harry any more trouble with this then I do not see any need to mention the matter of you trying to drag a fourteen year old boy into a cupboard to be alone with him.”

Rita Skeeter flushed, “I do not like your tone. I was merely trying to find a quiet place to interview Harry. I did not want him to be disturbed by the noise in the other room.”

Remus smiled, “Oh I believe you, Miss Skeeter, but as I’m sure you know, what matters most is not what your intentions were but how your actions look to the general public. After all, I only have your word for what you intended to do with Harry once you got him alone. Now if you still wish an interview, I would suggest that we find a place to talk inside the room with the others.”

Harry and Remus returned to the small classroom with Rita Skeeter following them. After glancing around the room, Remus led Harry to the chairs that were set up behind the velvet covered desks and sat down with him. Rita settled herself down in the chair next to Harry and set her crocodile-skin bag down, pulling out a long acid green quill and a roll of parchment from inside it.

“You won’t mind if I use a Quick-Quotes Quill, Harry? It leaves me free to talk to you normally.”

“If I may see that quill?” said Remus, leaning past Harry and plucking the quill from Rita’s hand. Pulling out his wand, Remus muttered a couple of spells over the quill, before handing it back to the reporter.

“You may use it now. I hope that you don’t mind that I took the liberty of removing the extra features from your quill. I would hate for you to miss something important because of all the extra verbiage such quills tend to use”

Rita placed to quill upright on her parchment, where it stood balanced on its point, quivering slightly.

“Testing … my name is Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter.”

Harry watched as the quill faithfully transcribed what Rita said, exactly as she had said it. He then looked up at the reporter and suppressed a grin at the expression on her face.

“What have you done to my quill?” she said.

“As I said, I removed the extra features. While they can be a useful crutch to the inexperienced writer, I am sure that a seasoned reporter like yourself has no need for them. I am willing to restore them at the conclusion of your interview with Harry if you’d like,” Remus informed her.

With a sour expression on her face, Rita turned to Harry, “Alright - why did you decide to enter the tournament, Harry?”

“I didn’t," said Harry. “I don’t know how my name got into the Goblet of Fire. I didn’t put it in there.”

Rita Skeeter raised an eyebrow.

“Come now, Harry, there’s no need to be scared of getting into trouble. We all know you shouldn’t really have entered at all. But don’t worry about that. Our readers love a rebel.”

Remus frowned, "Miss Skeeter, Harry has answered your question, he did  _ not _ put his name into the Goblet of Fire. Either you accept his answer and ask your next question or this interview is over."

Rita Skeeter looked annoyed but she moved on to the next question. “How do you feel about the tasks ahead? Excited? Nervous?”

“Definitely nervous,” said Harry.

“Champions have died in the past, haven’t they?” said Rita Skeeter briskly. “Have you thought about that at all.”

“Of course I have,” said Harry. “But the tournament is supposed to be a lot safer this year and it’s not like I haven’t been in dangerous situations before.”

“Of course, you have looked death in the face before, haven’t you?” said Rita Skeeter watching him closely. “How would you say that’s affected you?”

Godric chose this moment to slither from Harry’s sleeve. Rita Skeeter stared at the snake as he reared his head and flicked his tongue in her direction.

“Interesting, this one is like the dog-man,” Godric hissed.

“You mean she can become an animal?” Harry hissed back, startled. “Can you tell what kind?”

Godric flicked his tongue again, “She smells like an insect, maybe she would make a good meal for a smaller snake.” Losing interest in Rita Skeeter, Godric started to nose the velvet covering the tables, “This ground-cover is very soft, it would make a good bed.”

Harry smiled at his snake and hissed, “I will have to see about getting you some of it for your tank.”

He then looked back up at Rita Skeeter, who was still staring at the snake, “I’m sorry for the interruption but Godric had some interesting information for me.”

“I didn’t know that you were a parselmouth,” said Rita Skeeter, now studying Harry with avid interest. “My readers will be very interested in this new light on the boy-who-lived. Parseltongue has long been considered a Dark Art. In fact the most famous Parselmouth was You-Know-Who himself. How do you feel about sharing this ability with the wizard who killed your parents?”

“I’ve never really thought about it,” said Harry. “I rather like being able to talk to Godric here, and it came in handy when Draco Malfoy conjured that snake during the first Dueling Club meeting. I’m not sure that it can really be considered a Dark Art though, when it’s apparently a hereditary trait. I mean it’s not like I did anything in particular to be able to speak Parseltongue, it’s just something I can do.”

“How do you think your parents would feel about -”

Rita Skeeter’s question was interrupted by the arrival of Dumbledore and Ollivander, who was apparently the expert there for the Weighing of the Wands. Dumbledore looked around the room, and Harry noticed that Rita Skeeter’s quill and parchment had suddenly vanished from the table and she was hastily snapping shut the clasp of her crocodile-skin bag.

“Good, we’re all here,” beamed Dumbledore as he waved his wand moving four chairs to a spot near the door, facing the velvet covered table at the front of the room. “If the champions wouldn’t mind taking a seat.”

Harry quickly got up and joined the other three champions who were sitting down in the chairs that Dumbledore had just arranged. Sitting down beside Cedric, Harry saw Rita Skeeter settle herself down in a corner and slip the parchment out of her bag again. Remus moved to stand in a position where he could see over Rita Skeeter’s shoulder to read what her Quick-Quotes Quill was writing on the parchment.

“May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?” said Dumbledore from the velvet covered table, where the five judges had now seated themselves. “He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament.”

Ollivander started by inspecting Fleur Delacour’s wand. It turned out that the core of Fleur’s wand was a veela hair from her grandmother. Harry made a mental note to tell Ron that the blond champion was part-veela as he had thought.

Cedric Diggory and Victor Krum’s wands did not have any surprises, both were in excellent working order. Finally, Ollivander called Harry forward to hand over his wand. He spent much longer examining Harry’s wand than anyone else’s but he eventually made a fountain of wine shoot out of it and handed it back to Harry, announcing that it was still in perfect condition. Harry accepted his wand back, relieved that Ollivander hadn’t repeated the information he had revealed to Harry when he had bought the wand, about how his wand shared a core with Voldemort’s.

“Thank you all,” said Dumbledore, standing up at the judge’s table. “You may go back to your lessons now - or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end -”

Before anyone could leave, the cameraman cleared his throat and Bagman cried out excitedly, “Photos, Dumbledore, photos! All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?”

The photographs took a long time, but at last they were free to go. Harry said goodbye to Moony, who was talking to Rita Skeeter about reviewing her article about the champions before it was published, and hurried down to dinner. Ron, Hermione and Neville were waiting for him at the Gryffindor table, eager to hear about why he had been pulled from class.

“Did they really want you to get your picture taken?” asked Ron.

Harry remembered what Ron had said about feeling jealous and said, “They did take pictures, that’s why I’m back so late, but the real reason was to check our wands. Apparently, it’s part of the tournament to do a Wand Weighing ceremony to make sure that the champions wands are in good working order. Rita Skeeter was there and wanted to interview me, as the youngest champion, but hopefully Moony will manage to keep her from making the whole article about me.”

“Moony was there?” asked Neville.

“Yeah, he showed up just as Rita Skeeter was trying to drag me into a broom cupboard and insisted on her doing the interview in the room with everyone else. He’s going to review the article before it gets published so hopefully it won’t be too awful.”

“I guess that’s what Professor Snape was up to when he left the classroom for a minute, just after you and Colin had gone,” said Hermione thoughtfully.

Harry nodded and continued to tell his friends about his interview with Rita Skeeter and the Wand Weighing ceremony.


	14. Rita Skeeter's Articles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rita Skeeter's article about the Triwizard Tournament is in the Daily Prophet. Hagrid shows Harry the dragons for the first task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is a little late. Last week ended up being busy. I hope that all my Canadian readers had a good Thanksgiving.

The next day Harry nervously awaited the arrival of the morning owls and the Daily Prophet. They were midway through breakfast when the owls arrived, and Harry was finally able to see what Rita Skeeter had written about the Wand Weighing Ceremony and her interview with him. On the front page of the newspaper was a picture of the judges and champions from the day before with the headline, **Triwizard Champions Selected at Hogwarts.** The article accompanying the picture was a short one that named the champions and the school that they were representing, ending with a few lines about Harry:

_For the first time in the history of the Triwizard Tournament, a fourth name emerged from the Goblet of Fire when the champions were selected on Halloween evening. Harry Potter, also known as the boy-who-lived, a fourth year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was selected as the fourth Triwizard Champion, much to the shock of all present. Harry claims that he has no knowledge of how his name ended up in the Goblet but that he is prepared to compete in the Tournament. When asked how he felt about the danger involved in competing in a tournament that has caused the deaths of its Champions in the past Harry said that he was nervous about the danger, but he expressed his confidence in the safety measures that had been implemented when the Tournament was revived._

_As the interview with Harry was coming to an end, the boy-who-lived revealed that he had one more surprise up his sleeve. From that sleeve a colourful snake emerged and Harry had a short conversation with it. Harry Potter can speak Parseltongue and has a snake as a familiar._

_Parseltongue, the ability to talk to snakes, has long been considered a Dark Art. Indeed the most famous Parselmouth of our times is none other than You-Know-Who himself. Harry disputes the designation of Parseltongue as a Dark Art. “I’m not sure that it can really be considered a Dark Art though, when it’s apparently a hereditary trait. I mean it’s not like I did anything in particular to be able to speak Parseltongue, it’s just something I can do,” said Harry when asked how he felt about the common attitude towards Parselmouths._

This short and factual article would have been a relief to Harry if not for the other article occupying the front page of the Daily Prophet.

**Harry Potter’s Mysterious Mentor**

_Harry Potter was accompanied to the Triwizard Tournament’s Wand Weighing Ceremony, held at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, by Remus Lupin, a wizard who claimed to be representing the young wizard’s muggle guardians. Who is this mysterious wizard, and what is his connection to Harry? As this reporter investigated his background some troubling facts emerged._

_Remus Lupin was the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor at Hogwarts during the previous school year, but that was not the first time he was seen at the school. Ever since Harry started at Hogwarts Lupin has been frequently seen attending the school Quidditch matches, with his long time partner, Potions Master, Severus Snape. A wizard who narrowly escaped imprisonment in Azkaban for being a supporter of You-Know-Who. Whenever Lupin is at the school for a Quidditch match he seems to seek out Harry’s company and according to Harry’s close friend, Colin Creevey, the boy-who-lived regularly spent time with Lupin outside of his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes while Lupin was teaching at Hogwarts._

_Clearly Harry, tragically orphaned at a young age, sees Lupin as a father figure, but is this mysterious wizard the best influence for a vulnerable young wizard? While Lupin was at Hogwarts he was best known as a close friend of both James Potter, and Sirius Black, the man who betrayed the Potters to You-Know-Who and murdered Peter Pettigrew, as well as a dozen muggles. After the defeat of You-Know-Who and Black’s imprisonment in Azkaban, Lupin disappeared from sight, only to emerge again when Harry started attending Hogwarts. During that time Lupin became involved with former Death Eater, Severus Snape, and somehow ingratiated himself with Harry’s muggle guardians becoming their representative in the wizarding world. What else was Lupin doing while he was hidden? What was his motivation in seeking out Harry Potter’s guardians and gaining a position of influence over the boy-who-lived?_

_Lupin was apparently a popular teacher during his tenure as Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, even though his paramour is one of the most feared teachers in Hogwarts’ history. Despite this popularity, there is a troubling reluctance on the part of the students to talk about their former professor. It is as if this seemingly unassuming wizard has a secret that the students are afraid to reveal. What could he be hiding? A visit to the Creatures Division of the Ministry of Magic gave me the information I sought. Remus Lupin, Harry Potter’s friend and mentor is a werewolf! Do Harry’s guardian’s know what they have entrusted the safety and guidance of their young relative to? Does Harry know about his mentor’s dark secret? Should a werewolf with connections to two known Death Eaters and an interest in the Dark Arts be allowed to guide any young wizard in his interactions with the wizarding world, let alone the young hero who caused the downfall of You-Know-Who?_

The article continued with further insinuations about Remus’ motivations and influence over Harry but no more real information.

“I thought Rita Skeeter had agreed to let Moony review any article about you before she published it?” said Hermione as she finished reading the articles over Harry’s shoulder.

“She did,” Harry said. “I’ll bet she showed him the article about the tournament. That one’s not so bad, even if it does reveal that I’m a Parselmouth. Moony couldn’t really stop her from including that when I talked to Godric right in front of her. The second article, on the other hand, is about Moony not me. I’ll bet she wrote it because Moony wouldn’t let her write what she wanted to about me.”

Ron looked up from the newspaper. “She makes it sound like Moony is corrupting you or something,” he said angrily.

“Do you think Moony would be willing to corrupt us too, if we asked nicely,” said George with a grin, as he sat down across the table from Harry.

“I think we need to get Harry to help with our next prank, George,” Fred said, sitting down beside his twin. “After all this time being corrupted by a Marauder, he should be a mine of good ideas.”

“You’re right, Fred. How about it, Harry?”

The twins turned their attention on Harry with identical smiles. Harry shrank a little under their stares and then straightened up and grinned back.

“The two of you don’t need the help,” he said.

“That’s true, we don’t.” said Fred preening. “So what’s this about Moony corrupting you?”

Fred plucked the newspaper out of Ron’s hand and read the article with George reading over his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Harry,” said Hermione. “No one who knows Moony will believe any of that.”

As usual, Hermione was right, over the next few days it became clear that very few of the Hogwarts students to the Daily Prophet article seriously. The Gryffindors followed Fred and George’s lead in pretending to envy Harry for being ‘corrupted’ by such an illustrious former Gryffindor. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, on the other hand were inclined to blame Harry for bringing negative attention to their former professor, by putting himself in the spotlight again. Draco’s badges rapidly spread through the school as the other houses seized on the means to display their support of Cedric Diggory and their anger with Harry. The most surprising reaction was that of the Slytherins. The revelation that Harry was being mentored by their head of house’s partner made them wary of offending him, especially when the rumour began to spread among the Slytherins that Professor Lupin had been giving Harry training in the Dark Arts. As a result the Slytherins were becoming less openly hostile towards Harry, even as the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws become more so.

As the days leading to the first task passed, Harry found himself getting more and more nervous about facing a dragon in front of hundreds of people. He practiced the Summoning Charm every chance he had, but he still felt sure that he was going to mess up and make a fool of himself in front of everyone. He was also all too aware that even if he executed his plan perfectly there was still a risk that he would be injured by the dragon. The days seemed to speed by until it was only a few days until the first task, and the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year.

Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione went into Hogsmeade together. Like most of the other students they saw, Harry wore his Support Cedric Diggory badge, which earned him a few odd looks. Harry ignored them, along with the occasional remark made in his hearing comparing him to Cedric unfavourably. He was determined to enjoy the day and forget about the looming first task. After a visit to Honeydukes, they headed to the Three Broomsticks to meet up with Remus and Sirius. When they got there, Harry had to duck behind Ron and Neville to avoid being spotted by Rita Skeeter, who had just coming out of the Three Broomsticks with her photographer friend. Harry was glad that he was still shorter than both of his male friends, despite his recent growth spurt, it made it a lot easier to hide behind them.

Once Rita had disappeared from view, the four teens made their way into the Three Broomsticks. The pub was packed but Paddy and Moony were already there, holding a table for them. They joined the two wizards and visited over the butter beers that Paddy had bought for them. As they were finishing their drinks, Hermione spotted Hagrid talking to Professor Moody in the midst of the crowd. Harry waved to the gameskeeper when he got up to leave and Hagrid came over to their table to say hello. After greeting the four he whispered to Harry to meet him at midnight at his cabin.

“I wonder why Hagrid wants to meet me at midnight?” said Harry as they left the pub and headed back towards the castle.

“Hagrid probably wants to show off the dragons their bringing in for the first task,” said Ron. “I’ll bet that’s what he was talking about on Halloween.”

“Hagrid wouldn’t do that,” protested Hermione. “The champions aren’t supposed to know anything about the first task before it happens.”

Harry thought that Ron was most likely right but he didn’t feel like getting in an argument with Hermione over it. He shrugged, “I guess I’ll find out tonight.”

That night, Harry pretended to go to bed early and then slipped out of his dorm at half past eleven. The common room was still pretty busy when Harry reached it. The Creevy brothers had managed to get a hold of a stack of Support Cedric Diggory! badges and were trying to bewitch them to say Support Harry instead. Hermione had joined them and was showing them how she had managed to make the badge Harry was wearing stay stuck on Support Cedric Diggory so that it wouldn’t display the POTTER STINKS message. When Harry reached the portrait hole, Neville opened it from the other side and Harry slipped past him as he came back in to the common room.

Harry reententered the common room a couple of hours later feeling shaken. It was one thing to talk about having to get past a dragon, seeing the dragons in the flesh towering above him and breathing flame was another matter.

“So what did Hagrid want to show you?” asked Hermione impatiently, from where she sat with Ron and Neville. The three friends had agreed to wait for Harry to get back from seeing Hagrid before heading to bed.

“Ron was right,” said Harry dully. “They’ve brought in four dragons for the task and Hagrid wanted me to see them. He was showing them off to Madam Maxime.”

Ron looked upset, “How could he do that? She’s sure to tell her champion all about it and Harry’s edge will be gone!”

“I ran into Professor Karkaroff on the way back, he knows about the dragons too, so the only one who doesn’t know what the first task involves is Diggory,” said Harry. “I probably should say something to him so that Hogwarts isn’t at a disadvantage. Oh, by the way, Charlie was there. He’s one of the wizards who brought in the dragons.”

Ron grinned, “Brilliant! I hope he gets a chance to visit a bit while he’s here, Neville hasn’t had a chance to meet him yet.”

Sunday morning Harry went down to breakfast determined to find a chance to talk to Cedric and let him know what the first task entailed. It took a bit of stalking using the Marauders map but Harry finally managed to catch him alone about midway through the day.

“Hi Cedric,” Harry said as he found the older boy right where the map had said he would be.

“Hi Harry,” Cedric said.

“Cedric, the first task is dragons,” Harry said quickly.

“What?”

“Dragons,” repeated Harry. “They’ve got four, one for each of us, and we’ve got to get past them to retrieve something they’re guarding.”

Cedric stared at him. Harry saw some of the panic he’d been feeling for the past few weeks flickering in Cedric’s gray eyes.

“Are you sure?” Cedric said in a hushed voice.

“Dead sure,” said Harry. “I’ve seen them.”

“But how did you find out? We’re not supposed to know …”

“Never mind,” said Harry, he knew Hagrid would be in trouble if anyone knew about last night, and he definitely wasn’t about to say anything about the help he got from his dad. “But I’m not the only one who knows. Fleur and Krum will know by now - Maxime and Karkaroff both saw the dragons too.”

Cedric stared at Harry with a puzzled, almost suspicious look in his eyes.

“Why are you telling me?” he asked.

“Well, you’re the real Hogwarts champion,” Harry said, indicating the badge he was wearing. “I’m not supposed to be in this thing at all really, and I don’t want Hogwarts to be at a disadvantage. The others know and now you do too, so it’s fair. We’re all on an even footing.”

Cedric blinked in surprise. He apparently hadn’t noticed the badge until Harry had pointed to it.

“Anyways, now you know so … Good luck on Tuesday,” Harry said awkwardly and headed off to the library where he knew Hermione would be, unless she had gotten fed up with Victor Krum’s fans following him into the library, and had gone back to the tower.


	15. The First Task

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry faces a dragon in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.

Monday morning, Harry was having trouble concentrating in Herbology, thoughts of the dragons he had seen on Saturday night kept distracting him. Luckily he was partnered with Neville, who was able to make up for his lack of focus. As they left Herbology Neville nudged Harry.

“You’d better wake up, Harry. We’ve Care of Magical Creatures next and you know what that means.”

“Yeah, you want to be paying attention to what you’re doing around those skrewts, mate,” Ron said as he and Hermione followed Harry and Neville out of the greenhouse.

Harry nodded, “You’re right. Tomorrow is likely to be difficult enough without having been injured by a skrewt.”

After Care of Magical Creatures, Harry hurried through his lunch. He wanted to go over his plan for the first task before the lunch break was over. He was hurrying to his Arithmancy class at the end of the lunch hour when he was stopped by Mad-Eye Moody.

“Come with me, Potter,” Moody growled.

“Er - Professor, I’m supposed to be in Arithmancy -” Harry said uncertainly.

“Never mind that, Potter. In my office, please …”

Harry followed him, wondering what Moody wanted. When the arrived in his office, Moody closed the door behind them and turned to look at Harry, his magical eye fixed upon him as well as the normal one.

“Sit down,” said Moody, and Harry sat, looking around.

The office was full of a number of odd objects that Harry supposed Moody had used in the days when he had been an Auror. Harry recognized the Sneakoscope sitting on the desk, although Moody’s was much larger than the one he owned, but none of the other items were familiar to him. Moody, who was watching Harry closely, named a couple of the items that Harry had been looking at and explained their use. Harry was wondering what was in the large trunk that Moody had pointed out when his attention was drawn back to the ex-Auror by his next question.

“So, do you have any ideas about what you’re going to do tomorrow?”

Harry stared at Moody, “I’m not supposed to know anything about the first task before I do it …”

Moody grinned, “I’m sure that you’ve found something out. Cheating’s a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament after all. So … got any ideas how you’re going to get past your dragon yet?”

Harry nodded cautiously, deciding that there wasn’t much point in pretending to be surprised at Moody’s mention of a dragon, “I know what I’m going to do.”

“Good, good,” said Moody. “I’ve got some good, general advice. The first bit is - play to your strengths.”

“Of course,” Harry said nodding.

“My second piece of general advice,” said Moody, “is to use a nice simple spell that will enable you to get what you need.”

Harry blinked, it seemed that he and Moody had been thinking along the same lines.

“Thank you for your advice, Professor,” Harry said politely. “As I said I’ve got a pretty good idea as to what I’m going to do and I really need to get to my Arithmancy class now.”

Harry made it to Arithmancy just in time. As Professor Vector started his lecture, Harry told Hermione about his strange meeting with Professor Moody.

“I’m not sure why he felt the need to help me like that,” he whispered.

“I guess he just wants to make sure Hogwarts wins, or maybe he just thinks that you could use some extra help because you’re a lot younger than the other champions.” Hermione said quietly, continuing to take notes as she talked. “Now you’d better pay attention to Professor Vector or you’re never going to understand the assignment.”

“I guess that makes sense, but it was still kind of weird,” said Harry before turning his attention back to the lecture.

The next morning, the atmosphere of the school was one of great tension and excitement. Lessons were to stop at midday to give all the students time to get down to the dragons’ enclosure - though of course, they didn’t yet know what they would find there. Harry was so nervous that he felt like he had passed right through being nervous to an odd state of calm on the other side. He moved through the morning in a daze, running through his plan over and over again in his head. All too soon it was lunch time and Professor McGonagall was hurrying over to him in the Great Hall.

“Potter, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now … You have to get ready for your first task.”

“Okay,” said Harry, standing up to follow her, after he handed Godric to Ron to take care of while he was busy with the first task.

“Good luck, Harry,” Hermionee said. “You’ll be fine!”

“Yeah, you’ve got this, mate,” Ron agreed.

Neville nodded mutely in agreement and Harry followed Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall. As she walked him down the stone steps and out into the cold November afternoon, she put her hand on his shoulder.

“Now, don’t panic,” she said, “just keep a cool head … We’ve got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand … The main thing is to just to do your best, and nobody will think any the worse of you … Are you all right?”

“Yes,” Harry said. “Yes, I’m fine.” As he said it Harry realized it was true, he knew what he was going to do and he was prepared to do it. He had no idea if this feeling of confidence would survive facing a dragon, though.

When they reached the dragons’ enclosure, Harry saw that a tent had been erected, its entrance facing them, screening the dragons from view.

“You’re to go in here with the other champions,” said Professor McGonagall, in a rather shaky sort of voice, “and wait for your turn, Potter. Mr. Bagman is in there … he’ll be telling you the - the procedure … Good luck.”

Harry realized that she knew about the dragons, and was worried about him. With a sudden surge of affection for his Head of House, Harry smiled at her.

“Thanks, Professor. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Harry went inside the tent. The other champions were already there, looking rather nervous. Cedric gave Harry a small smile as he entered the tent, which Harry returned.

“Harry! Good-o!” said Bagman happily. “Come in, come in, make yourself at home!”

Harry thought that Bagman looked entirely too cheerful for someone who was about to send four teenagers out to face a dragon. Bagman showed them a small purple sack that contained models of the dragons they were to face, and explained that their task would be to collect a golden egg. Once the audience had filled the stands outside the tent, the champions each drew a small model of a dragon from the sack. Harry found that he was to face the Hungarion Horntail last, after all the other champions. After the dragons were drawn, Bagman pulled Harry outside of the tent and offered to help him with the task. Harry assured him that he knew what to do and returned to the tent to wait, while Bagman hurried off.

Severus sat in the stands with Remus and Sirius, who was in his animagus form, and watched    
Diggory Transfigure a rock into a dog to lure his dragon away from its nest. The trick worked and Diggory got the egg, but not without being burnt by the dragon, who was not as distracted by the dog as Diggory had thought.

“That was a pretty good tactic,” said Remus as the crowd cheered Cedric.

“Not good enough,” replied Severus. “He still got hurt.”

Fleur was next. She used a charm on her dragon that made it sleep. Unfortunately, the dragon snored and let out a jet of flame that set her skirt on fire. With great presence of mind, Fleur used an Aguamenti spell to put out the fire, and got the egg.

“Impressive,” said Severus. “The charm she used worked well and she didn’t panic when it didn’t work perfectly.”

“She was faster than Diggory, too,” agreed Remus.

Krum’s time was faster yet. He used a Conjunctivitis Curse, and got his dragon right in the eyes but the dragon’s thrashing around trampled half of the real eggs in its nest. Krum got the egg without any injuries but he lost marks for the damage to the dragon’s eggs.

“Clumsy,” commented Severus. “He should have anticipated the dragon’s reaction to the curse and allowed for it.”

“He has the best score, though. He did a good job casting the Conjunctivitis Curse,” replied Remus.

Finally, it was Harry’s turn. He looked very small walking into the enclosure to face the Hungarian Horntail, the biggest and most dangerous of the dragons there that day. Harry was quite clearly paying no attention to the audience watching him as he stood there with a determined and very focused look on his face. He raised his wand.

“Accio Firebolt!” he shouted.

Soon the broom had hurtled through the air to stop beside Harry. He removed something from the broom and tucked it into his pocket. Then Harry mounted the broom and kicked off the ground. As he rose in the air, Severus saw his face clear and a familiar look of concentration entered his eyes. Harry was obviously in his element and no longer afraid of facing the dragon. Severus groaned as Harry dove towards the Horntail.

“When the Quidditch cup was canceled, I thought that at least I wouldn’t have to worry about Potter injuring himself with his crazy antics on his broom this year,” he muttered.

Harry pulled out of his dive just in time to avoid the jet of fire that the Horntail released exactly where he would have been if he had not swerved away.

“I thought he was going to use his invisibility cloak to avoid the dragon,” said Remus anxiously, as Harry got too close to the dragon’s tail, avoiding another jet of flame, and was cut by one of the long spikes on it.

“He’s trying to lure the dragon from her nest,” Severus said. “Look he’s trying to stay just out of her reach but close enough that she’ll be tempted to go after him. It’s working too.”

They watched as the Horntail stretched her neck out trying to get Harry as he flew higher, out of her reach. Finally she reared and spread her wings, exposing her nest. Harry disappeared from view.

“He’s finally put on his cloak,” said Remus in relief, as Bagman exclaimed over the young champions sudden disappearance.

Soon the golden egg had also disappeared from its place in the middle of the dragon’s nest. Then Harry reappeared hovering above the enclosure holding the golden egg in one hand and his Invisibility cloak in the other. The crowd went wild as Harry flew back over the stands and landed smoothly at the entrance to the enclosure.

“He had the best time,” said Severus in satisfaction as he watched his son being congratulated by Professor McGonagall. “He did well, and he doesn’t appear to be too badly injured.”

“I’ll go check on him,” said Remus, getting up from his seat and heading to the first aid tent, Padfoot at his heels.

At the entrance to the tent, Remus met up with Ron, Hermione and Neville who were also looking for Harry. They entered the tent together to find Harry heading towards them.

“Harry, you were brilliant!” cried Hermione as soon as she saw Harry, who had obviously already seen Madam Pomfrey. “You were amazing! You really were!”

Padfoot barked his agreement.

“How are you feeling, Harry?” asked Remus, checking Harry’s shoulder where he had been cut. “Obviously, the cut wasn’t too deep, since I see Madam Pomfrey was able to heal it completely.” Remus smiled at Harry, “Hermione’s right, you know. You were brilliant, but I think I have a few more white hairs now from watching you dodge the dragon’s fire.” Remus then leaned in and whispered, “And I know that your Dad’s proud of you too. He’s being quite smug about you having the best time.” Straightening up, Remus continued in a louder voice, “I’d better be getting back to Severus, now that I’ve congratulated you and made sure you’re ok. Come on Snuffles, let’s go.”

Remus and Padfoot left the tent and Ron grinned at Harry.

“C’mon they’ll be putting up your scores …”

Ron handed Godric back to Harry and they headed out of the tent. On the way Ron and Neville told Harry about what the other champions had done, finishing just as they reached the enclosure again. The judges all gave Harry a good score except for Karkaroff, who only gave him a four out of ten, much to his friends indignation.

“You’re tied in first place, Harry! You and Krum!” said Charlie Weasley, hurrying to meet them as they set off back towards the school. “Listen, I’ve got to run, I’ve got to go and send Mum an owl, I swore I’d tell her what happened - but that was unbelievable! Oh, yeah - and they told me to tell you, you’ve got to hang around for a few more minutes … Bagman wants a word, back in the champions’ tent.”

Charlie hurried off and Harry headed back into the champions’ tent, while his friends waited for him outside. Inside the tent, Bagman told them that they had until February twenty fourth before the next task, but this time they had something to do while they waited. The egg held a clue that would tell them what the second task was so that they could prepare for it. Once Bagman was done with them, Harry left the tent and walked back to the castle with his friends, relieved that he had three months before he had to face the next task.

“Why were you trying to steal an egg from the large fire-lizards?” hissed Godric from where he was coiled around Harry’s wrist again. “Is it good to eat?”

“No, I can’t eat the egg,” Harry hissed back, trying to figure out how to explain the Triwizard Tournament to his snake. “Stealing the egg was to show how brave and clever I could be.”

“So you were trying to impress the female that you are interested in mating with? It seems an odd way to do that but you two-legs are odd.”

“I’m not interested in mating with anyone!” protested Harry his face burning.

“What about the female with the long black head fur?” hissed Godric knowingly. “You are interested in mating with her. I can smell it on you when she is nearby.”

Harry flushed even more. “I like Cho but I don’t want to mate with her,” he protested. “Besides, she wouldn’t be interested in me.”

“She is interested in you,” Godric hissed. “I can smell it on her too, but she is also interested in the tall male with dark head fur, the one who used the dog to distract his fire-lizard. I think you’re performance was more impressive, so maybe she will be willing to mate with you now.”

“I told you that I don’t want to mate with Cho, I’m too young to be thinking of that yet.” Harry protested again.

Godric ignored Harry’s protest and continued to speculate about the motivations of the champions, “I’m not sure who the female who stole an egg was trying to impress but the other male is interested in your friend with the tangled head fur. Do you think she was impressed by his performance. He was very brave but not as clever or fast as you.”

Giving up on convincing his snake that the tournament task had nothing to do with mating rituals, Harry looked back up at his friends who were all staring at him. He was suddenly very glad that none of them understood Parseltongue.

“What was your snake saying to get you so flustered?” asked Hermione curiously.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Harry.

“C’mon, Harry, what could Godric possibly have said to you that’s too embarrassing to tell us about?” Ron chortled. “You can tell us, we won’t tease you … much.”

Harry flushed again, “Godric doesn’t understand what’s going on with the tournament. He thinks the first task was part of some sort of mating ritual. He was asking me who I want to mate with.”

Neville started to laugh and Ron gave him a quizzical look.

“If Harry was that embarrassed by his snake, that must mean that there’s something for him to get embarrassed about,” Neville explained to Ron. “So who do you have a crush on, Harry?”

“No one,” said Harry hurriedly, and then he thought of a way to get the attention off of him. “But Godric also said that Victor Krum was trying to get Hermione’s attention. Did it work Hermione? Did you enjoy watching Krum show off how brave he was for you?”

Hermione looked astonished. “Krum can’t be interested in me. He’s an upperclassman, I’m only a fourth year.”

“He’d better not be,” Ron said, suddenly in a bad mood. “Come on, let’s get back to the tower. Fred and George should have nicked enough food for your party by now.”


	16. A Change in Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Yule Ball is announced, ruining Harry's plans for a Dr. Who marathon over Christmas.

When the four friends entered the castle there was a large black dog waiting for them in the entrance hall.

“Snuffles, what are you doing here,” said Harry. “Filch will be pissed if he sees you hanging around in the castle.” Harry turned to his friends, “I’d better bring Snuffles back to Moony before Filch sees him, I’ll see you back at the tower later.”

Ron, Hermione and Neville headed up to the Gryffindor common room and Harry made his way to his dad’s quarters, with Padfoot following on his heels. When they were safely inside Severus’ rooms Padfoot transformed back into Sirius and enveloped Harry in a hug.

“You were brilliant! I’ve never seen such flying!” Sirius exclaimed, before releasing Harry and looking at him seriously. “Although, you almost gave me a heart attack when you started dodging the Horntail’s fire. You did well but you need to be more careful. Remember, whoever put your name in for the tournament has plenty more opportunities to hurt you and you don’t need to make his job easy.”

“Paddy’s right, Harry,” said Severus. “I’m proud of you, you did really well in the task, but the idea was that you would play it safe, not risk death trying to win.”

Harry flushed, “I’m sorry. It’s just … when I was on my broom ... it was just like I was playing Quidditch and the dragon was the opposing team. I knew that I could dodge it’s attacks and get the egg, and I did!”

“That you did, Harry, and fortunately you weren’t seriously injured,” said Remus. “But don’t get complacent. You still have two more tasks to do and they won’t be easy. Let us know if you need any help with figuring out the clue in your egg.”

Harry looked down at the egg in his hand. “I guess I should open it and see what’s inside,” he said.

He dug his fingernails into the groove that ran all the way around it and prised the egg open. It was hollow and completely empty - but the moment Harry opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the room. Godric hissed in protest at the noise and Harry quickly slammed the egg shut again.

“What was that?” he asked staring at the egg. “It was even worse than the ghost orchestra at Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party.”

Remus found himself the focus of attention as the others all turned to him for the answer.

“I’m afraid I’ve never heard anything like that before. It was reminiscent of a banshee’s wail, but it definitely wasn’t one.” He thought for a moment and then said, “All I can tell you, Harry, is that the noise the egg made wasn’t produced by any Dark Creature, but I’m not as familiar with other Magical Creatures. Hagrid would probably be more helpful.”

“Speaking of Hagrid,” said Harry suddenly. “Do you think you could talk to him Moony? We’re really not getting anything out of studying his Blast-Ended Skrewts anymore. Maybe you could convince him to move on to something else?”

Remus frowned, “You’re right, I had better talk to him, especially with that Skeeter woman hanging around. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hagrid had come by those skrewts by less than legal means and we wouldn’t want Rita Skeeter getting wind of them.”

“Thanks Moony,” Harry said with a relieved smile. “I’d better get back up to the tower before everyone starts wondering where I am. At least I have plenty of time to figure out the egg before the next task.”

Harry hurried back up to the Gryffindor common room where mountains of cake and several excited Gryffindors were waiting for him. It was a good party, made even better by the relief that Harry felt after having gotten through the first task safely. He opened the egg at his housemates urging, and they spent some time speculating about what the noise it made could mean, until they were distracted by Neville being turned into a giant canary by one of the sweets that the twins had invented.   
  


As November ended and December began, it became evident that Remus had talked to Hagrid about his Care of Magical Creatures lessons. To the student’s relief, they were no longer having to tend to the skrewts, instead they had moved on to unicorns. The lesson was a little dull for the boys, since they couldn’t get too close to the unicorns, but the girls were delighted with the beautiful creatures. Hagrid apparently knew just as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, although it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.

The week continued to be windy and cold and as the weather grew ever more wintery, Harry found himself thinking about their plans for the Christmas Holidays. Hermione had invited him and Ron to her house for the holidays so that they could introduce Ron to Dr. Who. Then, at the end of their Thursday’s Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall made an announcement that ruined those plans.

“The Yule Ball is approaching - a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open to fourth years and above - although you may invite a younger student as they wish -” Professor McGonagall informed them, ignoring Lavender Brown’s giggles. “Dress robes will be worn and the ball will start at eight o’clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then -”

Professor McGonagall stared deliberately around the class.

“The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to - er - let our hair down,” she said in a disapproving voice. “But that does NOT mean, that we will be relaxing the standards of behaviour we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarasses the school in any way.”

The bell rang and there was the normal bustle of everyone packing their bags and preparing to leave the classroom.

Professor McGonagall called above the noise, “Potter - a word, if you please.”

Harry gloomily made his way to the teacher’s desk, wondering if there was any way he could convince Hermione and Ron to give up going to this ball so that they could stick to their original plans for the holidays.

Professor McGonagall waited until the rest of the class had gone, and then said, “Potter, the champions and their partners -”

“What partners?” said Harry, startled.

“Your partners for the Yule Ball, Potter,” McGonagall said coldly. “Your  _ dance partners _ .”

Harry’s face fell, as he realized where this was going.

Professor McGonagall continued, “Traditionally, the champions and their partners open the ball.”

“I’m not going to the ball,” Harry said. “I wasn’t planning on staying here over Christmas, I’ve got other plans.”

“It is traditional,” said Professor McGonagall firmly. “You are a Hogwarts champion, and you will do what is expected of you as a representative of the school. So make sure you get yourself a partner, and attend the ball, Potter.”

Harry left the classroom and found Ron and Hermione waiting to walk with him to lunch.

“What did McGonagall want to talk to you about?” Ron asked as they headed for the Great Hall.

“Apparently, I don’t have a choice about attending this ball and I have to find a partner to take to it. So much for our plans for a Dr. Who marathon.” Harry said gloomily.

“We can always do it over the summer, Harry,” said Hermione. “At least now we know why we had to bring dress robes this year.”

Ron groaned, “Don’t remind me. I’m going to look a right sight in the robes Mom got me, and I can’t dance, either. Hey, Harry, since you had lessons over the summer, do you think you could teach me? There’s no way I’m asking the twins for help!”

Harry smiled at his friend, “Of course, Ron. Maybe we can get The Professor to help, too.”

“Somehow I can’t imagine him dancing,” said Ron, doubtfully.

Harry grinned, “He’s actually quite good at it, although he hates dancing. It took quite a bit of work for Moony and Paddy to get him to help with my lessons. I’m pretty sure he only agreed because Paddy implied that the reason he wasn’t willing to dance was because he couldn’t.”

The next afternoon, Ron reluctantly joined Harry at their usual table in Potions.

“Do we really need to do this?” he asked in an anxious undertone.

Harry grinned at him, “Come on, Ron, this is going to be hilarious. I can’t wait to see Professor Snape’s reaction when we give him our potions.”

“I can,” muttered Ron but he accepted the piece of parchment Harry handed him and studied the recipe written on it.

Severus called the class to order and instructed them on the potion that they were to brew that afternoon.

“This is a potion that you should all be capable of brewing on your own, so I will be catching up on some marking while you work. Remember that I expect each of you to work independently, and if I catch any of you attempting to help a classmate with their work, you will receive a zero for the lesson. When you have completed your potion, clean up your work area and bring the finished potion to me.”

The students hurriedly started to work on the potion, which wasn’t too complicated but looked like it would take most of the class period to complete. Severus sat down at his desk and started marking the stack of essays sitting there. As the class went on, the other students started to notice that Harry and Ron weren’t working on the same potion as the rest of them. Harry was rather amused by the frequent glances sent their way, that ran the gamut from anticipatory excitement to outright dread, as his classmates tried to figure out what he was up to. 

Harry and Ron were among the first to finish their potions and to a mixed reaction of both disappointment and relief, nothing had happened. They carefully bottled the potions and cleaned up their table before taking their completed potions to the teacher’s desk. Severus glanced at the potions as they placed them on his desk and then glared at the two boys.

“Weasley, Potter, what are these?” He picked up Harry’s potion, “This is not the potion that you were supposed to be making.”

Harry grinned at his dad, “I know, we decided to give you a surprise. You see, with the Yule Ball happening I figured that you would be bringing Professor Lupin to it and I thought that you could use some help with looking your best for him.”

Severus’ face began to darken as he listened to Harry explanation.

“So I decided to make you a hair care potion, it’s supposed to be really good for greasy hair, you know,” Harry continued earnestly, apparently oblivious to the professor’s growing anger. “And Ron made you a skin cream, to give you a little colour. You are kind of pale you know, sir, you should probably try to get out of the dungeons more.”

“That is enough of your cheek, Potter!” Severus hissed. “You and Weasley will receive a zero for the class and I’ll see both of you after breakfast tomorrow morning for detention. Now get out of my sight!”

Ron grabbed Harry and dragged him out of the classroom, and then collapsed in nervous laughter.

“Did you see Snape’s face? I can’t believe I let you convince me to do that,” he gasped out between laughs. “Are you sure that we’re going to survive tomorrow’s detention.”

Harry grinned, “I’m sure, I had already cleared this with The Professor before I suggested it to you. After all, where do you think I got the recipes from. Now come on, let’s get our bags back to our room so we can go get some dinner.”

Ron gaped after Harry and then scrambled to catch up with him as he headed towards the dungeon stairs.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that you had already cleared your plan with The Professor, and you didn’t tell me,” Ron said when he had caught up to his friend. “I thought that he was really upset with us.”


	17. Dancing Lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ron learns to dance and Harry finds a date for the ball.

The next morning, Harry and Ron knocked on the door to Professor Snape’s office immediately after breakfast. Severus lead them to the Potions classroom, where Remus was moving the tables to the sides of the room, leaving the centre clear. A large black dog sat watching him until Severus had closed the door behind the two teens. Once the door was closed, the dog transformed into Sirius.

“Hello, Harry, have you made any progress on figuring out the egg’s clue yet?” Remus greeted his son as he moved the last table to the side.

Harry shrugged, “I haven’t really looked at it yet. Since I can’t go to Hermione’s for Christmas I figure that I’ll have plenty of time during the holidays, at least once this Ball is over with.”

“Speaking of the ball, have you found a date for it yet?” asked Sirius. “I was thinking that I should buy dress robes for your date as well, after all you don’t want to outshine her, whoever she is.”

“I haven’t had a chance to ask anyone yet,” said Harry. “After all we’ve only known about the ball for two days.”

Ron laughed, “Harry’s not going to have any problem finding a date. He’s already had three girls ask him to go to the ball with them. The last was was even good looking, and a fifth year at that.”

Harry scowled, “She was also a foot taller than me and had never talked to me before today. I don’t want to go to the ball with someone who’s only with me because I’m a school champion.”

Sirius ruffled Harry’s hair, “Well, once you’ve found the right partner let me know, and I’ll see what I can do about their dress robes. Now, let’s get this show on the road. Ron, watch Severus, he’s leading and that’s the part that you need to learn.”

With a wave of his wand, Sirius started the music playing and Severus and Remus danced, while Sirius explained the dance steps to Ron. Once Ron felt that he had a good grasp of what he needed to do, he lead Harry out into the middle of the room to try it for himself. At first Harry’s feet took a lot of abuse as Ron fumbled through the dance but as the morning wore on Ron improved, helped by the feedback of the three adults watching them, and soon they were dancing smoothly together. Then Remus pointed out the time.

“It’s almost noon, you two had better head up to the Great Hall for lunch. A three hour detention is probably as long as Sev can get away with.”

Ron looked anxious, “Do you think I’ve learned enough? I don’t want to make a fool of myself at the ball.”   
  


Sirius reassured him, “You’ve got all the steps down, now you just need to get some practise in. I’m sure that Harry will be willing to keep helping you.”

“Of course I will,” said Harry. “We’ll be the best dancers at the ball. Now we just need to find the right dates.”

“Don’t forget you’ve spent the last three hours cleaning up the classroom without magic,” Severus said as he started to move the table back to their usual positions. 

Harry looked around and realized that the room was unusually clean, as if he and Ron really had spent the last three hours cleaning it.

He grinned, “Dobby does good work. Come on Ron, let’s go get some lunch, all that cleaning made me hungry.”

Finding a date for the ball turned out to be easier said than done. Harry finally managed to get up the courage to ask Cho Chang to the ball, only to find out that she had already agreed to go with Cedric Diggory. As he walked back to Gryffindor tower Harry reflected on the way he seemed to constantly find himself competing with Cedric and losing. This didn’t really bode well for his chances in the Triwizard Tournament, but Harry reminded himself that he wasn’t trying to win, just stay alive. Despite everything, Harry realized that he still rather liked Cedric, although he wished he had managed to bring himself to ask Cho to the ball before Cedric had. She had seemed to be truly sorry to have to turn him down.

The question was, who could he ask now? Harry ran through the possibilities, he was pretty sure that Godric was right and Krum would have asked Hermione to the ball so she was out. Ginny would probably be willing to go with him but Harry wasn’t sure if she was sufficiently over her crush on him to be a safe pick, she might not be interested in going just as friends. The problem was that Hermione and Ginny were the only girls that he really knew well and he didn’t want to go with just any girl. He wanted to know that he would have a good time with his date. Harry stopped short as he realized there was no reason his date had to be a girl, after all his dad would be bringing Moony as his date. Harry hurried the rest of the way to Gryffindor tower hoping that his second time asking someone to the ball would go better than his first.

To Harry’s relief Ron was in the common room being nagged by Hermione to study for the upcoming Potions test as he built a card castle out of exploding Snap cards. Hermione looked up as Harry dropped into the seat beside Ron.

“Where’ve you been Harry? You should be studying Potions as well.”

“You know that I don’t need to study for Potions, Hermione, and it’s not like Snape would give me a good mark, no matter how well I do. But I’ll help you if you want after I’ve asked Ron something.”

Ron looked up from his cards, “What did you want to ask me?”

Harry took a deep breath, “Would you be willing to be my date for the ball? Just as friends, of course. No offence, but you’re not exactly my type.”

Ron put his hand over his heart and made a mock expression of disappointment, “And here I thought you were finally admitting your undying love for me. However will I survive the heartbreak of finding out that my secret dreams will never be realized.” Then he grinned and continued in normal tones, “Of course I’ll go with you if you really want me to, but wouldn’t you rather take a girl to the dance?”

Harry shook his head, “The only girl I’m interested in that way is Cho and she’s going with Cedric. Hermione is going with Krum -”

“How did you know?” exclaimed Hermione.

“Godric said he was interested in you and I didn’t think that you would turn him down when he asked you. I figure that Krum couldn’t be as much of a coward about asking a girl out as I am.”

Ron scowled, “I can’t believe you’re going with him, Hermione. It’s … It’s fraternizing with the enemy. That’s what it is.”

“Come on, Ron, you’re the one who wanted his autograph when they first arrived,” said Harry impatiently. “Anyways, with Hermione going with Krum I realized that any other girl I asked was liable to take being my date much too seriously, so I decided that I would ask you. At least that way my date will be someone that I enjoy talking to, and someone who I won’t make a fool of myself with when we open the ball.”

“Well, when you put it that way, I’d be delighted to be your partner at the ball, Harry,” said Ron temporarily distracted from the topic of Hermione’s date. “But I want to get as much practice in as we can. I’m not so sure that we won’t make fools of ourselves during that first dance.”

“Great!” Harry said, getting up. “I’ll go write Paddy and let him know.”

Harry left, headed for the owlery and Ron turned back to Hermione, only to have his card castle choose that moment to explode in his face.

Saturday morning found Harry and Ron heading towards the Whomping Willow. After checking to make sure no one was watching, Harry used a stick to freeze the willow and the two boys quickly dropped down into the tunnel underneath the tree. Soon they were opening the door to the Shrieking Shack where Sirius and Remus were waiting to take them shopping for Ron’s new dress robes.

“All ready to go shopping boys?” said Sirius as they emerged from the tunnel. “Ron you’re with me and Moony will be taking Harry. Hang on tight.”   
  


Offering his arm to Ron, who clutched it tightly, Sirius disapparated from the shack taking Ron with him, followed shortly by Remus and Harry. When the unpleasant sensation of a Side-along apparition was over, the two boys found themselves in Diagon Alley with Sirius dragging them to Madam Malkin’s. After Ron was measured every which way and materials and colours were debated and decided on, Sirius took the boys for hair cuts. Then he fed them lunch and brought them back to the Shrieking Shack so that they could sneak back into Hogwarts.

“That wasn’t what I was imagining when Paddy said he was going to buy dress robes for your date,” Ron commented as they snuck back into the castle, messing up his hair to make it less obvious that it had been cut.

“Going by the robes that he bought for me, Dad, and Moony the results should be worth it,” Harry said. “Of course, I’m sure that Paddy thought that having to sneak us out of Hogwarts to take us shopping was worth it all on its own.”

“I can’t argue with that,” grinned Ron. “That part was fun, and the lunch was definitely worth suffering through robe shopping for.”

The atmosphere of the Gryffindor common room was quite festive when Ron and Harry reached it. Now that the term had ended, all of the students who had stayed at Hogwarts for the holidays, which was most of the students in fourth year and above, were determined to enjoy themselves as much as possible. The festive atmosphere was not disturbed by the way people kept bursting into feathers all over the place, courtesy of Fred and George’s Canary Creams.    
  


Ron was still upset that Hermione had agreed to go to the ball with Victor Krum so Harry and Neville were working together to keep the conversation away from the topic of the Yule Ball. Which wasn’t an easy thing to do since the ball, and who was going with whom, was a popular topic in the week leading up to Christmas. As a result, Neville was spending a lot of time with Hermione and Ginny, who was his date for the ball, while Harry kept Ron occupied and away from Hermione. This wasn’t difficult since Ron had been serious about wanting to get as much dance practise as possible before the ball so the two boys were spending a lot of time hidden away in an empty classroom.

Christmas morning, Harry woke to his usual pile of presents at the foot of his bed. A book from Hermione,  _ Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland _ ; a bulging bag of Dungbombs from Ron; a handy pen knife with attachments to unlock any lock and undo any knot from Sirius; and a vast box of sweets from Hagrid. He had also received the usual sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large quantity of homemade mince pies. The final package was the one from his Dad and Moony, although the card only had Moony’s name on it since Seamus and Dean were still at Hogwarts and might see it. Harry opened it to find a book of advanced Defense spells with a note that they might be helpful for getting through the final two tasks in the tournament. There was also a book about freshwater magical water creatures and plants, Harry was looking at the book trying to figure out why his Dad had thought he would want it, when he was interrupted by Ron, who had finished opening his presents and wanted to go down to breakfast.

Neville, Ron and Harry met up with Hermione in the common room and headed down to breakfast together, (Ron had agreed to leave the topic of Hermione’s date for the ball alone for the day, so as to not spoil Christmas with a fight). They spent the morning enjoying their presents in the common room and then returned to the Great Hall for a magnificent Christmas lunch.

After lunch they went out onto the grounds for a grand snowball fight, although Hermione chose to hold Godric for Harry and just watch the Weasleys, Harry, and Neville battle it out, rather than join them. At five o’clock, Hermione gave Godric back to Harry, and announced that she and Ginny needed to go to get ready for the ball. Ron scowled and opened his mouth only to get hit with two snowballs in the face before he could say anything. By the time he had recovered from being hit and cleaned the snow off of his face the girls had disappeared into the castle. Ron turned on Harry and Neville who had thrown the snowballs.

“What did you do that for?” he demanded.

“It was for your own good,” said Harry. “Hermione’s going to hex you if you say anything more about her date with Krum.”

“What makes you think I was going to say anything about Krum?” Ron said.

“C’mon, Ron,” said Neville. “It was pretty obvious that you were about to go on another rant about Krum by the expression on your face.”

Ron looked at his friends in frustration, “I don’t understand why the two of you are ok with this. I mean Krum is Durmstrang’s champion, what if he’s just using Hermione to get close to you Harry. He could be trying to get inside information on you, or to get near enough to jinx you …”

Harry stared at Ron, “You’d better not say anything like that to Hermione, Ron. She would be pretty upset with you suggesting that she would fall for Krum trying something like that. I don’t know what’s gotten into you but Hermione can take care of herself.”

Neville looked thoughtful, “You know, Ron, it’s not Hermione’s fault that you didn’t think to ask her out before someone else did. You should really stop taking it out on her.”

Ron flushed, “That’s not - I’m not -”

A snowball thrown by George hit Ron in the side of the head as he spluttered and one from Fred nailed Harry in the shoulder, distracting the boys from their conversation. They returned to the battle that the girls departure had interrupted until the fading light drove them inside around seven o’clock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is the Yule ball but I'm afraid it will be late because it's turning out to be a lot longer than any of the other chapters.


	18. Yule Ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Ron attend the Yule ball.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took so long for me to get this posted, real life has been getting in the way of my writing time. The next chapter will likely be delayed as well since I've been roped into helping with our local little theatre's production of A Christmas Story so I'm going to be busier than normal for the next three weeks.

Harry stood in front of the bathroom mirror, running his fingers through his hair, trying to get it to look stylishly tousled, rather than looking like he hadn’t combed it for a week like it usually did. As he worked on his hair he remembered Moony telling him how his father used to mess with his hair whenever he was trying to impress a girl. Harry’s thoughts were interrupted by Ron peeking into the bathroom.

“Aren’t you finished yet? We need to get going if we want to be downstairs before the ball starts. Neville, Dean and Seamus have already gone to find their dates.”

Harry turned to look at his friend. The drape of the heavy silk of Ron’s new dress robe highlighted the breadth of his shoulders while disguising the gangliness of his limbs, and its red orange colour harmonized with Ron’s neatly styled hair and highlighted the blue of his eyes.

“Looking good, Ron, I’m going to have the best looking partner at the ball,” Harry said admiringly. “How do I look?”  
  


Like Ron’s, Harry’s robe was made of silk and simply cut but was a bottle green that brought out the colour of his eyes.

“You look good. The robe suits you and your hair looks fine,” Ron replied impatiently. “Now let’s get going.”

“Just let me get Godric,” said Harry heading to his snake’s Vivarium beside his bed.

Godric hissed sleepily at Harry as he coiled himself around the boy’s neck, “It is time to sleep, what are we doing now?”

“We are going to eat and then dance,” Harry hissed back.

“Oh, more mating rituals. That’s better than another snow fight,” Godric hissed, resting his head on Harry’s shoulders. “Wake me if anything interesting happens.”

As Ron headed down the stairs to the common room he was spotted by Fred, who nudged George.

“Look at our ickle Ronnie-kins, all grown up and ready for his first dance. He certainly cleans up well.”

George whistled, “He does indeed. Where’d you get that robe, Ron?”

“My godfather bought it for him. He didn’t want me to outshine my date,” said Harry as he followed Ron down the stairs.

“Isn’t your Godfather Sirius Black?” asked George curiously, “Why would he buy your date dress robes? Isn’t he trying to kill you?”

“Never mind that,” Fred said. “Harry’s your date to the dance, Ron? I guess now we know why you two have spent so much time sneaking off together this past week.”

George smirked, “Maybe we should be asking Harry what his intentions are towards our baby brother, Fred.”

“I think you’re right, George.”

Fred and George turned their attention to Harry who drew himself to his full height.

“I assure you that my intentions towards Ron are completely honourable,” he declared and then relaxed again and wiggled his eyebrows. “At least they were ... until I saw how he looked in those dress robes.”

“Harry!” Ron exclaimed before turning back to his brothers at the bottom of the stairs. “Don’t listen to him! Harry and I are just going to the ball together as friends, and all we were doing when we snuck off was practising for the opening dance. I wasn’t about to work on my dancing where the two of you could make fun of me.”

“Sorry, Ron,” said Harry sheepishly as he stepped off the last step. “I couldn’t resist.”

Ron looked around the common room, “Do you think Hermione’s already gone to meet up with Krum?”

Harry shrugged, “Probably, I’m sure we’ll see her downstairs.”

Ron and Harry came down the marble staircase just as the front doors opened and the Durmstrang students entered with Professor Karkaroff. Krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by a pretty girl in blue robes. Ron stopped at the last step of the staircase and gaped at her.

“That can’t be Hermione. What’s she done to her hair?” he said.

Then Professor McGonagall’s voice called, “Champions over here, please.”

Harry took Ron’s arm and the two boys stepped off of the staircase and walked forward, through the crowded Entrance hall. As the chattering crowd parted to let them through, they fell silent and then the noise grew again as the other students whispered to each other about Harry’s choice of partner. When they reached Professor McGonagall she told them to wait on one side of the doors while everyone else went inside; they were to enter in procession when the rest of the students had sat down. Fleur Delacour and her date, Roger Davies stationed themselves nearest to the doors. Cedric and Cho were close to Ron and Harry; Harry nodded to Cedric in greeting and then looked at over at Hermione, who was standing beside Krum.

Hermione smiled at him nervously, “Hi, Harry! Hi, Ron!”

“Hi Hermione,” said Harry before glancing over at Ron who was staring at Hermione like he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Harry elbowed Ron, who blurted out, “Hermione, what’d you do to your hair?”

“I used Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion on it,” Hermione answered. “It took ages to do properly.”

“I don’t like it,” Ron declared. “You don’t look like yourself with your hair like that.”

“Well, you don’t need to look at it if you hate it so much,” Hermione snapped. “It’s only going to be like this for tonight anyways. It’s way too much work to do everyday.”

Before Ron could respond, McGonagall told the champions and their partners to get in line in pairs and to follow her. They did so and everyone in the Great Hall applauded as they entered and started walking up towards a large round table at the top of the Hall, where the judges were sitting. Harry found he was enjoying himself as he strolled towards through the hall on Ron’s arm, following the other champions and their dates. Everyone was looking at him but it wasn’t for reasons that were out of his control this time and he was anticipating a fun evening with Ron.

When they reached the top table, Harry suddenly realized that Mr. Crouch was not there. The fifth seat at the table was occupied by Percy Weasley, who was staring at Ron with a surprised look on his face. When they reached the table Percy drew out the empty chair beside him and gave Ron and Harry a pointed look. Harry sat down beside Percy with Ron on his other side.

“What are you doing here?” Ron said as he sat down.

Percy looked smug, “I’ve been promoted. I’m now Mr. Crouch’s personal assistant, and I’m here representing him.” He then frowned at Ron, “I didn’t know you and Harry were dating. Where did you get those robes?”

“We’re not dating,” Ron said quickly before Harry could say anything. “We’re attending the ball together as friends because there wasn’t anyone else Harry wanted to go with, and the robe was a gift from Harry’s family.”

“Why didn’t Mr. Crouch come?” asked Harry, before Percy could ask any more questions about who had given Ron the robe.

Percy explained that his boss hadn’t been well since the World Cup and the loss of his house elf. As he talked Harry examined the menu that sat beside his plate, unsure of how to order. Until Dumbledore looked carefully down at his own menu, then said very clearly to his plate, “Pork Chops!” Once they knew what to do, Harry and Ron ordered their meals, along with the rest of the table.

After the food appeared, Ron and Harry listened to the conversations going on at their table. Victor Krum was telling Hermione what it was like a Durmstrang, to his headmaster’s dismay. Karkaroff did not want any of his school’s secrets to slip out. When Dumbledore told a story, as an example of the kinds of secrets he kept discovering about Hogwarts, of finding a room full of chamber pots one morning, Harry was glad he had Ron with him to share in his amusement.

Harry looked around the hall and nudged Ron, pointing to Hagrid waving at someone at the top table. When they looked around they saw Madame Maxime return the wave.

“Good on Hagrid,” said Ron quietly, “but if they get married their babies are going to be bloody enormous.” Ron then looked back at the staff table and whispered, “Hey, Harry I think Snape actually washed his hair. Do you think he used the potion you made him?”

Harry looked at his Dad and Moony. Severus looked very different from the way he usually did, his hair was clean and neatly tied back, and he was dressed in forest green dress robes instead of his usual black teaching robes. Beside him Moony wore dress robes of a rich chocolate brown that went well with Severus’s green.

“Of course he did,” Harry answered Ron, “and the skin cream you made as well. That’s why we made them, after all.”

Soon they had finished their food and the tables were moved back against the walls leaving the floor clear for dancing. The Weird Sisters trooped out onto the stage that Dumbledore conjured for them and started up a slow mournful tune. It was time for the champions dance. Ron lead Harry out onto the dance floor and carefully avoiding the eyes of their friends, they started the waltz they had spent so much time practising. As others joined them on the dance floor the two boys relaxed and Ron grinned at Harry.

“This isn’t so bad, although maybe we should have insisted that Neville join in our dance lessons,” he said nodding in the direction of where Neville and Ginny were dancing.

Harry looked over and saw that Ginny was wincing frequently as Neville stepped on her feet while they danced.

“You should ask Ginny to dance next. She should have at least one dance with someone who knows what they’re doing,” Ron said before looking around the dance floor some more.

“I’ll dance with Ginny if you ask Hermione to dance,” Harry told Ron, having noticed how Ron glared every time Hermione and Krum came into sight.

The final note sounded and the music stopped before Ron could reply to this. Harry noticed Remus talk to the band before pulling his dad up from the table they had been sitting at during the first dance.

“Let’s sit this one out, Ron. You’ll want to see this,” Harry said, leading Ron to a table with a good view of where his dad and Moony were heading to the dance floor.

The band started to play and as Remus drew Severus in close and they began to dance, Ron’s jaw dropped.

“What kind of dance is that!?” he said.

“It’s called a tango,” Harry said with a grin.

“Bloody hell, I would have never thought that Snape could move like that,” Ron said as he watched the two wizards move across the dance floor, Snape’s robes billowing about him as he spun away from Remus and back again.

Gradually the rest of the dancers stopped as they became aware of Severus and Remus’ dance. By the time the music stopped and the two wizards finished their dance, they were being watched by everyone in the hall. Remus spun Snape around for the final time, so that they stood back to front as the last note played, Remus’ arms wrapped around his partner’s waist. Snape’s eyes glinted and a small smirk played about his lips when the hall erupted into whispers and applause at the conclusion of their dance. Remus gave a soft laugh into his ear, amused by the shocked expression on the faces of most of the students, before releasing Severus so that they could leave the dance floor.

Godric lifted his head from Harry’s shoulder and hissed, “Your fathers performed a very compelling mating dance. They shouldn’t have any problems finding a mate to their liking after that display.”

Harry laughed and hissed back, “That’s true, but they aren’t actually looking for a mate right now.”

“I will never understand you two-legs and your mating customs,” Godric hissed.

As the Weird Sisters started to play a fast song and the students returned to dancing, Hermione found Harry and Ron, dragging Victor Krum with her.

“Harry, did you know that Professor Snape and Professor Lupin could dance like that?” she demanded as she arrived at their table.

Harry nodded, “They’ve been practising all summer, I think it was Moony’s idea. I’m not sure how he got Professor Snape to go along with it, though. Maybe Moony’s sense of humour has been rubbing off on the Professor.”

Ron snorted, “Or maybe he lost a bet.”

“I don’t know, Ron. I think Professor Snape enjoyed that just as much as Moony did,” Hermione said thoughtfully. “They’re both really good dancers aren’t they?”

Harry laughed, “You wouldn’t see Professor Snape on the dance floor if he wasn’t.” He then glanced between Hermione and Ron, “Of course they’re not the only good dancers here, Hermione. Ron’s pretty good too, even if he’s not quite in the Professors’ league.”

Harry then gave Ron a nudge and Ron quickly stood up and stammered, “I - I would like it if you would dance with me, Hermione. I - I don’t think I’m that good but I can promise that I won’t step on your toes.”

“You don’t mind, do you, Victor?” Hermione asked.

“Go ahead, Herm-own-ninny. I vill vait for you here.” Krum said as he sat down at the table beside Harry.

As Ron led Hermione onto the dance floor, Ginny and Neville arrived at Harry’s table.

“Isn’t Professor Snape a wonderful dancer? I would love to dance with him.” Ginny said, dreamily. She then blushed and hastened to add, “Moony was really good too, of course.”

Krum looked puzzled, “Your Professor Snape’s dance partner, who is he? Herm-own-ninny called him Professor Lupin, but he does not seem to teach any subject here at Hogwarts, and vhy do you call him Moony?”

“He’s Professor Snape’s life partner, Remus Lupin,” Ginny answered. “He taught Defense Against the Dark Arts last year but had to leave for personal reasons at the end of the school year. Which was too bad, he’s a really good teacher. I’m not sure where the nickname came from, but that’s what Harry and my brothers have always called him.”

Harry shrugged when Krum looked at him, “When I first met him, Professor Lupin told me that my father used to call him Moony when they were at school together, and I’ve gotten into the habit of using it since then. Fred, George and Ron must have picked it up from me. As you may have gathered from Rita Skeeter’s article in the Daily Prophet, Moony’s been looking out for me ever since I started at Hogwarts.”

Krum looked surprised, “I remember that article, it said that this Professor Lupin is a verevolf. I am surprised that your Headmaster allows him in the school. It vould never be allowed at Durmstrang. Does he not pose a danger to everyone by being here?”

Ginny bristled, “Moony is the sweetest and gentlest person you’ll ever meet. When Professor Snape told us about everything he’s gone through in making sure that he would never hurt anyone while he was transformed, I almost cried.”

Harry hadn’t realised that his dad had done the werewolf lesson with the other years, but it made sense when he thought about it. The information in the textbook was extremely biased against werewolves, after all.

“There is no reason for a werewolf to be any more dangerous than any other wizard when it isn’t a full moon night,” Neville said. “And Professor Snape is quite capable of making the Wolfsbane Potion for his partner, so I’m sure that Moony is perfectly safe during the full moon, too.”

“That’s right,” said Ginny pugnaciously.

“I haff never known a verevolf,” said Krum apologetically. “I know only what I haff read about them. I am glad to hear that this Professor Lupin is no danger to others.”

Godric hissed from Harry’s shoulder, “It looks like your friend with the tangled head fur did not appreciate the weasel’s mating dance. She seems angry.”

Harry was glad that no one else could understand what Godric was saying. He had once tried to explain the concept of names to his snake, but the only thing that Godric had picked up from that was a tendency to call Ron a weasel, because of Harry’s attempts to figure out how to say his friend’s name in Parseltongue. He looked up to see Hermione heading towards them, looking upset, with Ron trailing after her. When Hermione reached the table, she turned to Ron and glared at him.

“Why don’t you mind your own business, Ron? If you wanted to have a say in who I dated you should have asked me before someone else did, and not as a last resort!” Hermione said angrily, before turning to Krum. “Come on, Victor, let’s go get something to drink before I hex this idiot!”

Krum and Hermione left, cutting across the crowded dance floor, presumably heading to where the drinks were, and Ron found himself the focus of three accusing stares.

“I didn’t mean to say anything,” he protested, flopping down in a chair. “I mean, I told her her hair looked nice, even if I like it better the way it usually looks, and we were enjoying our dance. Everything was going well. Until I tried to apologise for being such a prat about her going to the dance with Krum. When she told me that he had been hanging around in the library trying to get up the courage to talk to her, I found myself going on about why she shouldn’t be going with him, all over again.”  
  


“Ron, you’re an idiot,” Ginny said.

“I know,” Ron moaned. “I’m just going to leave her alone for the rest of the dance, and hopefully she’ll be ready to forgive me in the morning.”

“That’s probably a good idea, Ron. Why don’t you give Neville a dance lesson, while I dance with Ginny?” Harry said, before turning to Ginny. “That is if you will do me the honour of dancing with me?”

“Of course,” Ginny replied, and Harry led her out onto the dance floor.

“Thanks, mate,” Neville said gratefully as Ron stood and pulled him to his feet. “I can use all the help I can get.”

As Ginny and Harry neared the end of their dance, Remus whirled by with Professor McGonagall.

“Harry, I think I saw Snuffles out in the rose garden earlier,” Remus said as they passed.

Ginny lit up, “Let’s go, Harry. I just love Professor Lupin’s dog, he’s such a sweetie.”

“Alright,” Harry said, noting that Remus was maneuvering Professor McGonagall towards where Ron was working on Neville’s dancing. “I’m sure Ron and Neville will be on their way out there soon, as well.”

Harry and Ginny circled the dance floor and slipped out into the entrance hall. Through the open front door, they could see fluttering fairy lights in the rose garden that had been conjured up for the evening. Soon they found themselves being greeted by a large black dog at the base of the outside staircase. Surrounding them were bushes, winding ornamental paths and large stone statues. Here and there, people sat on carved benches and there was the sound of splashing water coming from a fountain hidden somewhere amongst the rose bushes.

Harry watched in amusement as Ginny fussed over his godfather, petting and praising him for being such a good boy. He knew that Sirius loved the attention, and the humour implicit in Ginny’s ignorance of his true identity. Soon Ron and Neville joined them in the garden and they all wandered down one of the winding paths of the garden. When they had gone a short way down the path they heard a familiar voice.

“... don’t see what there is to fuss about, Igor.”

“Severus, you cannot pretend this isn’t happening!” Karkaroff’s voice sounded anxious, and hushed, as though keen not to be overheard. “It’s been getting clearer and clearer for months. I am becoming seriously concerned, I can’t deny it -”

“Then flee,” said Snape’s voice curtly. “Flee - I will make your excuses. I, however, am remaining at Hogwarts.”

Snape and Karkaroff came around the corner. Snape had his wand out and was blasting rose bushes apart, his expression most ill-natured. Squeals issued from many of the bushes, and dark shapes emerged from them.

“Ten points from Ravenclaw, Fawcett!” Snape snarled as a girl ran past him. “And ten points from Hufflepuff too, Stebbins!” as a boy went rushing after her. “And what are you lot doing?” he added, catching sight of Harry and his friends on the path ahead. Karkaroff looked rather disturbed to see them standing there. His hand went nervously to his goatee, and he began winding it around his finger.

“We’re just enjoying the gardens,” replied Harry. “That’s what they’re here for, aren’t they?”

“None of your cheek, Potter,” snarled Snape, and he brushed past them, his long black cloak billowing out behind him. Karkaroff hurried after Snape.

“I wonder what that was about?” said Ginny as they continued down the path. “What’s got Karkaroff so worried?”

Harry was silent. He had a pretty good idea what Karkaroff was talking about. He knew that his dad’s dark mark had been growing clearer throughout the school year, and if Karkaroff was a former Death Eater who had escaped imprisonment by giving information to the Aurors, then it was no wonder that he would be worried about his own mark changing.

Harry was broken out of his musing by hearing Hagrid’s voice coming from a stone bench near a tall fountain.

“Momen’ I saw yeh, I knew,” he was saying to his companion, in an odd husky voice.

The four teenagers looked at each other in embarrassment and quickly hurried out of earshot, passing Fleur Delacour and her date, who were standing half concealed in a rosebush nearby. The path had looped around back towards the castle and Neville and Ginny decided to return to the dance so that Neville could show her what Ron had taught him. Once they were gone, Harry, Ron and Padfoot found a hidden corner and Padfoot promptly transformed back into Sirius.

“You two look great!” Sirius exclaimed. “Have you been enjoying the dance? Did Moony manage to convince Sev to do the tango before he came out here to break up the snogging couples?”

Harry and Ron described Remus and Severus’ dance, and the reactions to it, to Harry’s delighted godfather.

“Oh, I wish I could have seen that,” laughed Sirius. “I’ll bet the expression on everyone’s faces were priceless. Anything else interesting happen before you came out here?”

“Not much,” said Harry. “I danced with Ginny and Ron upset Hermione again. He’s really having a hard time with her going with Victor Krum, for some reason.”

Sirius smirked, “You know Ron, if you like the girl there are a lot better ways to get her attention than by constantly upsetting her. If Harry’s dad had figured that out a little earlier than seventh year my time at Hogwarts would have been a lot more peaceful.”

Ron turned red, “It’s not like that! I just don’t think she should be going with someone she hardly knows, and the Durmstrang champion at that!”

“If you say so,” said Sirius. “But if you ever want some help in figuring out how to woo Hermione you can always owl me. I have some experience in attracting the interest of the rule abiding, bookish types. Although, Moony never was quite as rule abiding as he seemed.”

Harry’s eyebrows shot up. “You and Remus were a couple?” he asked in astonishment. “No wonder you were so upset when you thought he was with Dad.”

“It was while we were at Hogwarts, and it didn’t last long,” said Sirius. “We both decided that we were happier just being friends after a couple of months. No, I was upset with the idea of Remus being with Sev because Sev had been such a wanker at Hogwarts. I have to admit that he’s improved immensely while I was in Azkaban. I can only assume that was due to your and Moony’s influence.” Sirius smiled at his godson and his friend. “You two should go back into the dance and have fun. I’m going to find Sev and ‘help’ him with his patrolling.”

With a wink, Sirius transformed again and took off into the garden again. Harry and Ron went back into the Great Hall and looked around. Ginny and Neville were dancing again and this time it looked like Neville was at least managing to avoid stepping on Ginny’s feet, and Hermione was once more dancing with Krum. Ron glared at them briefly and then deliberately headed for a different section of the dance floor. Harry and Ron shared another dance and then went to get some drinks, while Ron tried to convince Harry to ask Cho for a dance.

Harry eventually caved to Ron’s pressuring and cut in on Cho and Cedric. After that dance, which was spent mostly discussing Quidditch and the Triwizard Tournament, Harry looked around for Ron, only to see him leading Pavarti out onto the dance floor. Harry spotted Ginny and Neville sitting at one of the tables, taking a breather and went to join them. This resulted in Harry dancing with Ginny for a while, before spending the rest of the ball talking and dancing with Ron.

When the Weird Sisters finished playing at midnight, everyone gave them a last, loud round of applause and started to wend their way into the entrance hall. Harry realised to his surprise that, contrary to his expectations, he had enjoyed the ball. He was really glad that Cho had turned him down and he had asked Ron to be his date. He didn’t think that he would have had nearly as much fun having to come up with stuff to talk to her about for more than their one dance. Although the night would have been even better if Ron and Hermione hadn’t been upset with each other.

Out in the entrance hall, Harry and Ron saw Hermione saying goodnight to Krum before he went back to the Durmstrang ship. She gave Ron a cold look and swept past him up the marble staircase without speaking. Ron hurried after her, but Harry was stopped from following by someone calling him when he was halfway up the staircase. It was Cedric Diggory, running up the staircase toward him.

“Listen …” Cedric lowered his voice as he reached Harry. “I owe you one for telling me about the dragons. You know that golden egg? Does yours wail when you open it?”

“Yeah,” said Harry.

“Well … take a bath, okay?”

“What?”

“Take a bath, and - er - take the egg with you, and -er- just mull things over in the hot water. It’ll help you think … Trust me.”

Harry stared at him.

“Tell you what,” Cedric said, “use the prefects’ bathroom. Fourth door to the left of that statue of Boris the Bewildered on the fifth floor. Password’s ‘pine fresh.’ Gotta go .. want to say good night -”

He grinned at Harry again and hurried back down the stairs to Cho. Harry headed upstairs, pondering Cedric’s advice. He didn’t see how taking a bath with the egg was going to help but it was worth a try. At least he would see what the prefects’ bathroom was like. Suddenly very tired, Harry decided he would think about it again in the morning. Right now all he wanted to do was to go to bed.


	19. Figuring Out the Second Task

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry follows up on Cedric's hint about the egg.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter, finally. The play is done so hopefully I'll have more time and energy to write again, although with Christmas coming up I still have a lot going on.

When they were finally all out of bed the next day, Harry told Hermione, Ron and Neville about what Cedric had said to him after the ball.

“He gave you the password to the prefects’ bathroom? Percy was always bragging about how nice that bathroom is, after he made prefect. You should definitely visit it,” said Ron.

“I’m planning to,” Harry assured him. “Maybe I’ll go tonight after curfew. You know if the egg has something to do with water, maybe that’s why I got that book about magical water creatures and plants for Christmas.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Hermione agreed. “Maybe opening the egg under water will help.”

To Harry’s relief, Ron and Hermione had apparently made up, now that the ball was over. Although, they were carefully avoiding any discussion of the ball and Victor Krum. Instead they made a start on the homework that they had been neglecting during the first week of the holidays.

That night, after everyone was in bed, Harry crept out of the common room hidden under the invisibility cloak and carefully keeping an eye on the Marauder’s Map in his hand. As he crept along the empty corridors he remembered his promise to check the map for any unexpected names with a touch of guilt. He decided that he would take a good look once he was done with his bath. When he reached the statue of Boris the Bewildered, that Cedric had mentioned, he located the right door and whispered the password to it.

The bathroom was impressive, with a bath that was the size of a swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor. Harry got one of the fluffy towels that sat in a pile on the floor and placed it at the side of the bath, along with the egg, map and his cloak. He then knelt down and turned on a few of the hundred golden taps that stood around the edge of the pool.

The taps turned out to carry different sorts of bubble bath mixed with the water that flowed out of them. One tap gushed pink and blue bubbles the size of footballs; another poured ice-white foam so thick that Harry thought it would have supported his weight if he’d cared to test it; a third sent heavily perfumed purple clouds hovering over the surface of the water. Harry played with the taps for a while until the pool was full of hot water, foam and bubbles. He turned off the taps, undressed, and slipped into the water.

After swimming in the pool for a few minutes, it was so deep that his feet barely touched the bottom, Harry returned to where he had left the egg and picked it up. Taking a deep breath he sunk under the surface of the pool and opened the egg. Instead of the discordant screeching Harry had heard the other times he opened the egg, a chorus of eerie voices sang to him from the egg in his hand.

_ “Came seek us where our voices sound, _

_ We cannot sing above the ground, _

_ And while you’re searching ponder this; _

_ We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss, _

_ An hour long you’ll have to look, _

_ And to recover what we took, _

_ But past an hour - the prospect’s black, _

_ Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back.” _

Harry pushed back up to the surface and shook the hair out of his eyes, thinking about what he had just heard. Then he ducked under the water to listen to the egg’s song again. He repeated this three more times before he felt confident that he had the words memorized. Climbing out of the pool Harry carefully dried the egg off, before drying himself and pulling his pajamas and housecoat back on. Gathering up the egg and map, Harry pulled his Invisibility cloak back on and left the bathroom, thinking about what meaning the egg’s song could have. As he headed back to the Gryffindor tower, Harry kept a close eye on the map but the only movement was Peeves bouncing around in another part of the castle. Mr. Filch and Mrs. Norris were safely ensconced in their office. When Harry reached the empty common room he found some parchment and a quill and quickly wrote down the egg’s song before heading up to bed.

The next morning Harry told his friends about the eerie voices that he had heard coming from the egg once he had listened to it under the water. He then showed them the parchment where he had written the song down.

“We cannot sing above the ground,” repeated Hermione. “Since you had to open the egg under water to hear the song, that must mean that the singers are some kind of underwater magical creature.”

Harry nodded and pulled out the book he had gotten for Christmas, “I figured we could look through here and see what might live in the lake that has a human voice.”

“I’ve heard there are merpeople in the lake,” said Ron with interest. “Try looking them up first.”

Harry flipped through his book to find the entry on freshwater merpeople.

“It says here that they have a human sounding voice when underwater, but their language can only be heard as a discordant shrieking above water. That fits,” Harry said excitedly. “The second task must be to go find the merpeople in the lake and retrieve what they took, within an hour.”

Hermione looked troubled, “How are you going to spend an hour underwater, Harry? We haven’t covered any spells that will let you breathe underwater yet.”

Harry’s face fell, “There must be something we can find that will let me breathe underwater. Maybe I can get Paddy to send me some Scuba gear.”

“Can I see your book, Harry?” asked Neville. “I think there’s something in there that will help.”

Harry passed the book over and Neville turned to the section on freshwater plants. He flipped through the pages until he had found what he was looking for and then handed the book back to Harry.

“Eating Gillyweed will let you breathe underwater as well as making it easier for you to swim,” Neville said as he pointed out the relevant information in the book to Harry. “I believe that Professor Sprout grows it in one of the greenhouses.”

“Professor Snape probably has some as well,” said Harry. “I shouldn’t have any trouble getting enough for the task. It doesn’t look like I’ll need much. It says here that the Gillyweed will help me endure cold temperatures as well, which is good. The second task is on February 24th, the lakes going to be  _ cold _ .”

Once they had Harry’s strategy for the next task figured out they returned to working on their homework assignments, at Hermione’s insistence, until it was time to go down to the Great Hall for lunch. Harry was just finishing up his lunch when Fred and George sat down across from him.

“Harry, you still haven’t explained why your godfather would buy dress robes for your date to the Yule Ball.” said Fred with a smirk.

“We think we have a right to know how, and why, you are managing to remain in contact with an escaped convict who supposedly wants you dead,” added George.

“Since you’ve apparently involved our ickle brother in whatever you’ve gotten yourself mixed up in,” Fred continued. “It’s our responsibility to watch out for little Ronniekins, after all.”

Harry glanced around and was relieved to see that no one seemed to be paying attention to the twins words.

“I’ll tell you, but not here,” he murmured just loud enough for the other two boys to hear. “Let’s find somewhere a little more private to talk.”

Hermione, who was sitting beside Harry whispered, “I think I know just the place. The house elves told me about it, come on.”

Hermione got up from the table and led the boys out of the great hall and up to the seventh floor, stopping in front of a tapestry of a wizard who appeared to be attempting to teach a group of trolls ballet. As the boys watched, Hermione paced back and forth in front of the tapestry, muttering to herself. When she had passed the tapestry for the third time a door appeared in the wall opposite. Hermione opened the door to reveal a replica of the Gryffindor Common room.

“We should be able to speak freely in here. The house elves told me that this room, they call it the Come and Go room, or the Room of Requirement, will always provide what the seeker needs, and I asked it for a place where we couldn’t be overheard.”

“This is brilliant, Hermione,” said Harry sitting down by the fire. 

Fred and George plopped down on the couch across from Harry and looked at him expectantly. 

“Well, to start with, Sirius Black is innocent,” Harry said. “He wasn’t the one who cast the curse that blew up that street full of Muggles and he never betrayed my parents. He thought he was too obvious a choice for secret keeper, since he was my father’s best friend and so he convinced my parents to use Pettigrew as their secret keeper instead. Only it turned out that Pettigrew had been Voldemort’s spy all along. That’s why Sirius went after Pettigrew, but the rat faked his own death and framed Sirius for it.”

“But, they found Pettigrew’s finger where he had been standing at the time of the explosion,” protested Fred.

Harry shrugged, “He cut off his own finger, before blowing up the street and escaping into the sewers. He was pretty desperate to hide, since it was his information that led to Voldemort being defeated. The other Death Eaters weren’t very happy with him. Anyways, Sirius was thrown into Azkaban without a trial but he escaped when he found out that Pettigrew was going to be here at Hogwarts with me. That’s who he was really after when he broke into the castle last year.”

Fred and George exchanged a look. “How did Black find out that Pettigrew was at Hogwarts, and how could Pettigrew be here without anyone else knowing about it?” asked George.

“Peter Pettigrew spent twelve years living with a wizarding family, disguised as a pet rat. Sirius found out when he saw a picture of the family in the Daily Prophet and recognized Pettigrew by his missing toe.”

Fred and George paled as they put the pieces together. 

“Scabbers was a disguised wizard!?” they exclaimed in unison.

“Does Ron know?” asked George.

Harry nodded, “He was with us when we got the tale from Sirius. We didn’t tell Percy, though.”

“Yeah, Percy wouldn’t take that well. You know he used to sleep with Scabbers,” said Fred.

George looked thoughtful. “Pettigrew must have been an unregistered Animagus to be able to disguise himself as a rat for so long. That must be how he was able to escape the explosion as well.”

“That’s right,” said Harry. “My father, Sirius, and Pettigrew all became Animagi in their fifth year at Hogwarts, so that they could spend the full moon nights with Moony. That’s where the Marauder’s nicknames came from.” The twins knew that Moony was a werewolf, of course. Pretty much the whole school knew by the end of the last school year, thanks to Professor Snape.

“Pettigrew was a Marauder?” exclaimed Fred.

“Yeah, Pettigrew is Wormtail and Sirius is Padfoot, his animagus form is a big black dog,” Harry said.

“Snuffles!” cried Fred and George in delight, before collapsing in laughter.

“I can’t believe that Sirius Black has been wandering around Hogwarts disguised as Moony’s dog,” laughed George. “That’s the best prank ever.”

“We have got to meet him, Harry,” choked out Fred between his own laughs. “It would be such an honour. Even better than getting to know Moony.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” grinned Harry. “I know that Padfoot would love to meet you two as well.”


	20. Rita Skeeter Writes Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rita Skeeter's article covering the Yule Ball is published. Then Harry and his friends have a run-in with her in Hogsmeade.

The rest of the week following the Yule Ball passed quietly. Harry split his time between hanging out with his friends, researching the creatures that he might encounter in the Black Lake, and sneaking off to see his dad. Then on the Saturday before the start of term Hermione overheard Parvati and Lavender discussing an article about Harry in the most recent edition of  _ Witch Weekly _ . Borrowing the magazine from Lavender, Hermione went to find her friends.

**_The Boy Who Lived Comes Out at Yule Ball_ **

_ One of the events that has always been a part of the Triwizard Tournament is the Yule Ball. Traditionally the ball is a chance for the hosting school to show off for their visitors but this year it was also a cause of heartbreak for the many girls who had hoped to catch the eye of Hogwarts’ Champion, Harry Potter. For Harry’s date for the Yule Ball was none other than his long-time friend and constant companion, Ronald Weasley. Has Harry at last found love at Hogwarts? His close friends Colin Creevey says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of Ronald Weasley, and in recent days the young couple has been taking advantage of the school holidays to sneak away to spend time alone together. Although, from the reaction of the other students on the night of the ball, it was clear that few had realized the true nature of their relationship. _

_ However, it is possible that the famous teen had another motive for dating Ronald Weasley. Rather than remaining at his boyfriend’s side, Harry was seen dancing with Ronald’s sister, Ginerva Weasley, not long after the two boys had opened the ball with the other champions. At the conclusion of their dance, Harry and Ginerva left the ball for a moonlit walk in the rose garden that had been conjured for the night. Is it possible that Harry had only invited Ronald to the ball, to get closer to his sister? I wasn’t long before Ronald had discovered the whereabouts of his date and his sister, following them into the garden accompanied by Ginerva’s partner. After they caught up with their quarry, Ginerva returned to the dance with her date, while Harry and Ronald remained behind in the garden. Unfortunately for Ronald, Harry continued to toy with both of the Weasley’s affections, dividing his time between the two siblings for the rest of the night. _

  
  


“Does it really say that Harry’s was cheating on me with Ginny at the ball?” Ron exclaimed as he stared at the magazine article that Hermione had just read to them.

“Who cares,” Harry said. “We all know that the article is nonsense and what does it matter what anyone else thinks.”

“Harry,” said Ginny. “Mom reads  _ Witch Weekly _ and she won’t know that it’s all nonsense.”

“Oh,” said Harry looking worried. He really liked Mrs. Weasley and he didn’t want to think about how she would react to thinking that he was toying with both Ron and Ginny.

“Well, then you and Ron had better write to her and let her know that Harry’s not actually dating Ron,” Hermione said briskly. “And Harry, you should make sure that Moony knows about the article. I’m sure that he never approved an article about your love life. Rita Skeeter is probably counting on him not reading a magazine meant for witches.”

“That’s a good idea,” said Ron. “Come on Ginny, we can use Pig to send the letters.”

Ron and Ginny both wrote to their mom, while Harry wrote to Remus to let him know about the article, and then the three friends headed up to the owlery to send their letters.

“How do you think that Rita Skeeter knew we went into the garden together?” asked Ginny. “I didn’t see her at the ball.”

“She is an illegal animagus,” Ron told his sister. “Godric told Harry that she’s some sort of insect so she could have easily been hiding somewhere about without being noticed.”

Reminded of how Godric had realized that Rita Skeeter was an animagus, Harry hissed to his snake. “Did you smell the insect woman when we were at the dance?”

Godric raised his head from where he was coiled around Harry’s neck. “No, there were too many scents inside to make out any particular scent and outside was too cold.”

“Godric didn’t smell her but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t there,” Harry told Ron and Ginny. “Apparently he couldn’t make out individual scents in the Great Hall and he was hiding from the cold under my robes while we were in the rose garden.”

Ron’s eyes widened, “What if she saw Paddy?”

Ginny looked puzzled, “Professor Lupin’s cousin? He wasn’t at the dance was he? And even if he was, why would it matter if Skeeter saw him?”

“No, of course, he wasn’t there,” said Harry quickly, exchanging a look with Ron. “Now let’s get up to the Owlery, I think I need to add a postscript to my letter to Moony before I send it.”

When no article appeared over the next two weeks, Harry and Ron decided that Rita Skeeter must not have seen Sirius during the brief time when he wasn’t being Snuffles. Surely, if she had seen Harry and Ron talking to an escaped convict she wouldn’t have passed up the scoop. The morning of the next Hogsmeade visit, halfway through January, found Harry in a very good mood. It looked like Sirius’ secret was still safe, he had a good idea what he was going to do for the next task so he wasn’t worrying too much about that, and he was looking forward to introducing Fred and George to Padfoot.

Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Neville left the castle together early on Saturday morning, heading for the Three Broomsticks where they were planning to meet up with Moony and Paddy. As they passed the Durmstrang ship moored in the lake, they saw Viktor Krum emerge onto the deck, dressed in nothing but swimming trunks. They watched as he climbed up onto the side of the ship and dove into the lake.

“I suppose he’s preparing for the next task,” said Harry with a shudder, staring at Krum swimming out into the middle of the lake. “But the water must be freezing, it’s January.”

“It’s a lot colder where he comes from,” said Hermione. “I suppose it feels quite warm to him.”

“I wonder if he knows about the giant squid,” said Ron, sounding vaguely hopeful. Hermione frowned at his tone of voice.

“He’s really nice, you know,” she said. “He’s not at all like you’d think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me.”

Harry nodded, “He seemed nice when I spoke to him at the dance. He dealt with finding out that he had been watching a werewolf dance quite well, I think.”

Ron scowled but didn’t say anything.

When they got to the Three Broomsticks it was as crowded as ever, but the four teens quickly spotted Moony and Paddy holding a table for them near the back of the room. As they made their way through the pub, Bagman came hurrying towards them from the shadowy corner where he had been talking to a bunch of goblins.

“Harry!” he said. “How are you? Been hoping to run into you! Everything going alright?”

“Fine, thanks,” said Harry shortly, hoping that Bagman wouldn’t hold him up for long.

“Wonder if I could have a quick, private, word, Harry?” said Bagman eagerly. “You couldn’t give us a moment, you three, could you?”

“Er - okay,” said Ron, and he, Neville and Hermione continued towards the table where Moony and Paddy were waiting for them.

“I hope this won’t take long,” said Harry as Bagman led him along the bar to the end furthest from Madam Rosmerta. “My friends and I have plans.”

“Of course,” Bagman said. “I’m sure you’re eager to make the most of your day in Hogsmeade, I just thought I’d congratulate you again on your splendid performance against that Horntail, Harry. Really superb.”

“Thanks,“ said Harry impatiently. He knew that couldn’t be all that Bagman wanted to say to him, though. He didn’t need to drag Harry away from his friends for that.

Bagman seemed to pick up on Harry’s impatience and with a glance at the mirror above the bar where the goblins he had been talking to were reflected, he continued.

“Listen, Harry,” he said (in a very low voice), “I feel very bad about all this … you were thrown into this tournament, you didn’t volunteer for it … and if …” (his voice was so quiet now, Harry had to lean closer to listen) “if I can help at all … a prod in the right direction … I’ve taken a liking to you … the way you got past that dragon! … well, just say the word.”

Harry stared at Bagman.

“We’re supposed to work out the clues alone aren’t we?” he said carefully, trying not to think of all the help he had been getting from his family and friends.

“Well … well, yes,” said Bagman impatiently, “but come on, Harry - we all want a Hogwarts victory, don’t we?”

“Of course we do but I’m not the Hogwarts Champion, Cedric is. Have you offered him help?” Harry said pointedly.

Bagman frowned, “No I haven’t,” he said. “You’re Hogwarts’ Champion just as much as Diggory is and I - well, like I say, I’ve taken a liking to you. Just thought I’d offer ..”

“Well, thanks,” said Harry, “but I’ve got the clue figured out and I know what I’m doing. I don’t need any help. Now if you’ll excuse me I’d better be getting back to my friends.”

Harry hurried away from the disappointed looking Bagman and joined his friends at their table. Bagman then left the pub quickly followed by the goblins.

“What did Bagman want?” asked Ron as Harry sat down beside him.

“He was offering to help me with the tournament. I’m not sure why,” Harry answered, accepting the butterbeer much that Remus handed him.

“He’s probably bet on you winning the tournament,” said Sirius. “Bagman has a real gambling problem.”

“He shouldn’t be doing that!” said Hermione looking very shocked. “It can’t be legal for him to be betting on the outcome of the tournament when he’s one of the judges!”

“We don’t have any proof that that’s why he wanted to help Harry,” Remus pointed out. “And since Krum and Madam Maxime are quite openly biased towards their champions while Dumbledore is being more neutral in his scoring, I don’t think it’s really doing any harm.”

Harry frowned, “It does put Cedric at a disadvantage, though. None of the judges are favouring him.”

“It’s not like there’s anything you can do about it,” Ron pointed out. “Diggory’s been doing all right on his own so far.”

“I wonder what the goblins were doing here with Mr. Bagman,” Hermione said, sipping her butterbeer. “They don’t look very friendly.”

“I can answer that one,” said Sirius with a grin. “Bagman owes them money so they’re not about to let him out of their sight until he pays them. He’s probably hoping to make enough off of betting on the Triwizard Tournament to get them off his back.”

As they continued to enjoy their butterbeer and discuss the tournament and Harry’s preparations for the second task, Godric unwound from around Harry’s neck and scented the air.

“The insect woman is here,” hissed Godric.

Harry looked over to the door and saw that Rita Skeeter had just entered, accompanied by her photographer. She bought drinks, and she and her photographer made their way towards an empty table nearby. When Rita Skeeter was close enough, Remus spoke to her.

“Miss Skeeter, I believe that I had made it quite clear that you weren’t to publish anything about Harry without my having seen it first.”

Rita Skeeter turned to Remus with a smile.

“So you saw my article in Witch Weekly, did you? Their readers do love a good scandal,” she said, coming over to their table. “Harry! Would you like to set the record straight about your relationship with the two youngest Weasleys?”

“Harry is not going to be talking to you,” Remus said with a frown.

“I believe Harry can talk for himself, Mr. Lupin,” said Rita Skeeter smugly. “Whatever your arrangement with his relatives is, you have no  _ legal _ authority over him and I don’t need to worry about what a werewolf has to say about me.”

Hermione bristled. “The Ministry might be interested in knowing how you get the information for your articles,” she said. “I don’t believe I saw your name on the Animagus registry when I had a look at it last year.”

Rita Skeeter smirked. “But I’m not the only unregistered Animagus that Harry spends time with, am I?” she said quietly. Her eyes gleamed as she watched the colour drain from Harry’s face as he realized what she was talking about.


	21. Meeting Sirius Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus and Sirius deal with Rita Skeeter having found out about Sirius. Fred and George meet another Marauder.

Rita Skeeter’s smirk grew as she looked around the table.

“My, my, it appears that you all know what I’m talking about. Interesting,” she said before turning her attention back to Harry. “So what do you say, Harry? Are you going to give me the interview I want or do I need to inform the public of what I know about the company you keep, without your input?”

“You don’t need Harry to get the story you want,” Sirius said suddenly. “I can arrange for you to have an exclusive interview with the animagus in question if you leave the boy out of it. I promise that you won’t be disappointed. You can even bring your photographer along and get a better picture than the one that the Daily Prophet was using last year.”

“Are you sure about this?” Remus asked.

Sirius nodded, “It’s about time that the Wizarding world heard Sirius’ side of things, and I’m sure that Rita will cooperate.” He gave Rita Skeeter a charming smile. “After all you don’t want to lose the story, do you, Rita? Now, when should I arrange for you to meet him?”

Rita Skeeter smiled back greedily, “For a story like that I’m free anytime.”

“Then shall we say tomorrow at this time? Remus will meet you here and bring you to a place where you can conduct your interview. It won’t be the most comfortable location but it shouldn’t be any worse than a broom closet.” Sirius winked and then stood up from the table. “Now that that’s settled, I’d better get going. I don’t want to be late for my appointment. I’ll see you later, cub.”

Ruffling Harry’s hair as he went, Sirius left the pub, passing Fred and George who had just entered. The twins looked around the crowded pub until they spotted Harry and made their way over to him.

“Harry!” cried Fred as he came up beside Harry where he sat at the table. “There you are!”

“What are you still sitting around for!” exclaimed George from Harry’s other side. “We don’t want to be late!”

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to steal your boyfriend away for a while, Ronniekins,” said Fred with a smirk as he pulled Harry out of his chair.

“I promise that you’ll have him back in one piece once we’re done with him,” George said with a smirk of his own, pushing Harry towards the door.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Ron yelled after his brothers, his face bright red.

“I’d better go after them,” said Remus getting up from the table. “Harry might need some help keeping those two under control.”

As Remus left, Neville finished off his butterbeer and stood. “I promised that I would meet up with Ginny about now. I’ll see you two later.”

Ron frowned and followed Neville, “First you take Ginny to the dance and now you’re showing her around Hogsmeade. Are you making a play for my little sister, Neville.”

“Honestly, Ron,” huffed Hermione as she hurried after the two boys. “You’d better not let Ginny hear you talking like that.”

As they left Rita Skeeter went back to the table where her photographer had sat down, and pulling out her Quick Quotes quill and a roll of parchment, she began to write.

Remus caught up with Fred and George as they hurried Harry up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, towards the edge of the village. Sirius had arranged to meet them at the stile at the end of the road leaving Hogsmeade in that direction. They didn’t take long to reach the stile at the end of the winding lane that lead them out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade.

“Padfoot!” cried Fred and George when they saw the large, shaggy dog waiting for them, its front paws on the topmost bar of the stile.

The black dog wagged its tail and dropped down to the ground. Turning he began to trot away from them across the scrubby patch of ground that rose to meet the rocky foot of the mountain. Harry, Fred, George, and Remus climbed over the stile and followed him. After a lengthy walk up a steep, winding and stony mountain path they reached a narrow fissure in the rock that Padfoot disappeared into. Fred and George eagerly squeezed into the fissure and found themselves in a cool, dimly lit cave. They looked around for the black dog, only to see a tall, thin wizard grinning at them, instead.

“So you’re the boys who have been carrying on the Marauder’s legacy? From what Harry and Moony have told me about you two, I am proud to have been your inspiration,” Sirius said.

Fred and George fell to their knees, “We are not worthy to be in the presence of such greatness,” they chorused.

“How come you didn’t kneel at my feet when you met me,” said Moony, taking in the scene as he followed Harry into the cave.

“I guess they just recognize that I’m the superior Marauder,” Sirius said with a smirk.

Fred and George looked at each other and then shuffled around so that they were facing Moony and repeated their protestations of unworthiness.

Harry spoke up from where he stood just inside the entrance to the cave, watching Fred and George’s antics, “I don’t think that you can claim to be the superior Marauder, Paddy. After all, Moony had you fooled last year, along with the whole school.”

Sirius pouted, “How was I supposed to know that he could convince Snape to go along with a prank like that? That was even more unbelievable than Moony falling for him.”

Fred and George sat back and looked from Harry to Sirius. “Wait a minute, what prank?” Fred asked.

“And what does Snape have to do with it?” added George.

Moony sighed, “I don’t think Severus will be very happy if I tell you what Harry’s talking about, yet. You’ll just have to wait to find out with everyone else when the time is right.” He then glared at Harry, “Unless, you want to explain to Severus why Fred and George know more than they should.”

Harry blanched. “No, forget I said anything,” he muttered.

Sirius quickly spoke, taking the twin’s attention away from Harry and Remus.

“Harry was telling me about the business you’re trying to start, Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes. I’d like to see some of your products if you have any with you. They sound interesting.”

Fred immediately pulled several of their products out of his bag and started to explain them to Sirius and Remus. Sirius was delighted with the Canary Creams and announced that the Skiving Snack boxes that were still under development would have been invaluable for the Marauders when they were at Hogwarts. Then he began to question the twins about their plans for the future of their business. After they explained their plans, which they had obviously put a lot of thought into, Sirius pulled out a bag of Galleons and handed it to Fred.

“Take it. I would hate to see such a glorious business venture fail for lack of capital and deprive future generations of pranksters of the results of your genius,” he declared when Fred protested and tried to give him back the Galleons. “I fully expect to see a fine return on my investment when you get established, and of course I expect to get the first pick of any new products.”

Fred and George promised that they would notify their new partner of any new products that they developed and to send him any that interested him. They were still thanking Sirius when Remus called their attention to the time and sent the three boys back down the path towards Hogsmeade.

“You go ahead,” said Sirius when Remus waited for him to transform into Padfoot to join them. “I’m going to spend the night here. I need to make it look good for Rita Skeeter tomorrow, after all. I’ll call Winky for anything I need.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Remus said before heading out of the cave to escort Harry, Fred, and George back to Hogsmeade.

The next day, Remus was waiting for Rita Skeeter in the Three Broomsticks when she arrived with her photographer in tow.

“Right on time, Miss Skeeter,” said Remus in greeting. “It’s a bit of a hike so we’d better get going.”

Remus led the way out of the pub, ignoring Rita Skeeter’s questions as they made their way out of Hogsmeade. Rita finally fell silent when she saw the mountain path that Remus had led them to. For a moment Remus thought that she was going to refuse to follow him up the path but with a determined look, Rita Skeeter started to climb, followed by a very unhappy looking photographer. When they finally reached the cave where Sirius was waiting for them, both Rita and her photographer were looking rather the worse for wear.

Remus was amused when he entered the cave and saw what Sirius had done. He had obviously put some work into making it look like he had been hiding out in the cave for a while. There was a pile of rags in the corner, obviously meant to be Sirius’ bed and old copies of the Daily Prophet strewn around, as if he’d been trying to keep up on current events while he was in hiding. Sirius himself was wearing ragged grey robes that looked like the ones he had been wearing when he had escaped Azkaban, and he had obviously used magic to grow his hair longer and make it look untidy and matted like he hadn’t been able to wash it for a long time.

“Did you bring food?” Sirius demanded as soon as he saw Remus.

Remus reached into his pocket and brought out a package of food that he had bought in Hogsmeade before meeting up with Rita Skeeter. From the way Sirius fell upon the food, Remus realized that he probably hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before. He had to admire his friend’s dedication to the role of an escaped convict in hiding that he had assumed for his interview with the reporter.

“Thanks,” said Sirius as he tore a chunk off of a chicken leg that he had pulled out of the package, with his teeth. “I’ve been living off of rats mostly, it’s good to have a real meal for once.”

Rita Skeeter cleared her throat and settled herself down on a rock, pulling out her Quick Quotes Quill and some parchment. The photographer set up his equipment and started to take pictures of the cave and Sirius.

“Why are you here?” she asked Sirius. “Surely there are better places for you to hide.”

“I’m keeping an eye on my godson,” Sirius explained. “I don’t like what’s been going on recently and the way he ended up in this Tournament, it seems fishy to me. I decided that I needed to be on the spot, just in case.”

“Your godson? You’re referring to Harry Potter?” Rita leaned forward eagerly. “You escaped Azkaban with the intention of killing Harry in revenge for the defeat of You-Know-Who, but now you have somehow gained his trust and he’s still alive. What is stopping you from exacting your revenge? How are the werewolf and his cousin involved in your plans? You and Remus Lupin were friends at Hogwarts and his current partner is also a Death Eater, did the Lupins also serve You-Know-Who before his defeat?”

Sirius smiled urbanely at Rita. “I’m afraid that you have been misinformed, Rita. I have never been in Voldemort’s service, and neither has Remus or his cousin.” He paused and then slowly continued,” The night that he was defeated was the worst night of my life, but that was because James and Lily were killed, not because Voldemort was gone.”

Rita flinched whenever Sirius said Voldemort but continued with the interview. “If you weren’t working for You-Know-Who then how did he learn of the Potter’s location? You were their secret keeper, weren’t you?”

Sirius growled, “No, I was not their secret keeper. We had changed our plans and made Peter Pettigrew the secret keeper. You see we knew that there was a spy in our midst, so I thought that if Peter was the secret keeper but everyone thought it was me, I could act as a decoy and keep Peter safe, and then James and Lily would be protected as well. But the rat betrayed them! He ran straight to Voldemort with their location and by the time I realized what he had done they were gone!”

Sirius’ voice broke and Remus silently reached over and put a hand on his shoulder.

“So you went after, Pettigrew for revenge when you discovered he betrayed the Potters?”

Sirius nodded and continued in a thick voice, “After I went to the cottage in Godric’s Hollow and found out that James and Lily were dead but Harry had survived, I left Hagrid to take him to Dumbledore, to keep him safe, and I went after the rat. I found him all right, but he was one step ahead of me, before I could take him down he had blown up the street and faked his own death.” Sirius paused and then continued in a stronger voice. “I escaped from Azkaban because I had found out where the rat was hiding all these years and I was determined to finally commit the murder that I had been imprisoned for and to keep Harry safe from him.”

Rita’s eyes glittered. “If you are innocent, why didn’t any of this come out at your trial? Surely you attempted to prove your innocence?”

Sirius’ face darkened. “I was never given the opportunity to prove my innocence. On the orders of Barty Crouch, I was thrown in Azkaban without a trial, like many were at the time.”

Rita gloated as she watched her quill race across the parchment, “Innocent and imprisoned without a trial. This article is going to set the Wizarding world on its ear.”


	22. The Prisoner of Azkaban

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rita Skeeter's interview with Sirius is published.

On the morning of February first, Harry found himself looking at a photograph of his godfather grinning and winking up at him from the front page of the Daily Prophet. Above the picture was the headline **SIRIUS BLACK CLAIMS INNOCENCE IN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW**. Harry quickly began to read the article, only to be interrupted by Neville nudging his arm and nodding at the head table.

“Snape sure looks pissed. What’s in the paper that’s got him so upset?”

Harry looked up to see that Neville was right, his dad was glaring at his copy of the Daily Prophet like it had personally offended him.

“He’s mad that Paddy gave Skeeter an interview,” Harry whispered, showing Neville the paper. “Although he might just be offended by her writing, she was obviously using her Quick Quotes Quill with all its enchantments intact. Listen to this.” Harry read the beginning of the article out loud.

_As I approached the concealed cave entrance that the information I had received had led me to, I felt a chill run down my back. I was about to meet the only prisoner to successfully escape Azkaban, the infamous mass murderer, Sirius Black. I hesitated a moment to look around me at what might be my last glimpse of the beautiful, and rugged Scottish countryside before taking a deep breath and entering the cave, determined to risk everything for the chance to find out the true story behind this dark and contradictory wizard. Inside the cave, I was met by a gaunt figure, with the ragged remains of his former spectacular good looks clinging to him like the rags of the prisoner’s robe that he still wore._

_Tears formed in Sirius Black’s stormy, grey eyes as he spoke to me about his reasons for remaining so close to Hogwarts. “I would do anything to protect my Godson,” he declared in a choked voice. “Even if it means living in a cave, subsisting on rats. Being Harry’s Godfather is a sacred trust and I swear by my magic that I will not fail him as I failed his parents.”_

“Even Sirius isn’t that dramatic,” Harry said, rolling his eyes. “Although I wouldn’t put it past him to try to convince Skeeter that he had been living on rats since he escaped Azkaban.”

“Hey, Harry, if Sirius is found to be innocent, does that mean you’ll go to live with him, instead of your relatives? He is your Godfather after all?” asked Ginny from where she sat across from Neville.

“I don’t think so,” Harry responded. “After twelve years in Azkaban and a year of living on the run, I doubt that anyone would be willing to give him custody of a child.”

Harry frowned to himself. He remembered that his dad hadn’t been in the room when Sirius had suggested that Harry come live with him and the subject had never come up again. He didn’t know that Harry had already refused to go to live with his godfather. As he went back to reading the article, Harry decided that he had better sneak down to the dungeons that evening to visit his dad.

“That’s odd,” said Harry, after he read some more. “Skeeter says that she tried to contact Mr. Crouch to question him about Sirius being thrown into Azkaban without a trial, but he was too sick to talk to her.”

“What’s so odd about that?” asked Ron. “Percy said that Crouch was sick at Christmas, that’s why he was at the Yule Ball instead.”

“I saw Crouch on the map last week, in Moody’s office,” Harry said. “If he’s so sick, then why was he here visiting Moody?”

“Maybe he was feeling well enough to return to work and he just didn’t want to talk to Rita Skeeter,” suggested Hermione, over her copy of the Daily Prophet. “He was probably visiting Hogwarts about the tournament and stopped in to talk to Moody while he was here. If he was head of the Department of Magic Law Enforcement during the war, then he and Moody must know each other.”

“I guess,” said Harry with a shrug. “I’d probably fake being sick too, to get out of talking to Skeeter about throwing an innocent man in Azkaban without a trial.”

Harry turned to page two, where the article continued and saw that the paper had rerun the picture from their article about the Weaselys winning their grand prize draw. The caption below it read _The picture that prompted the only successful escape from Azkaban_.

“Ron, did you really talk to Rita Skeeter about Scabbers,” Harry asked after he had read a bit farther.

“Yep,” said Ron peering at the paper. “I hope she didn’t make me sound too stupid. My brothers would never let it rest if she says I was crying or something.”

Harry read, _Ronald Weasley, the unsuspecting owner of the rat that Peter Pettigrew had allegedly spent thirteen years disguised as, had this to say, “It was a huge shock when I found out about Pettigrew. Scabbers had been part of our family for as long as I could remember, we never had any suspicion that he was anything other than what he had seemed, an ordinary rat. When I think that he spent three years sleeping in our dorm room with us … with Harry ...” Ron shuddered in horror at the thought of the danger that his boyfriend had been in. “I never would have forgiven myself if Scabbers had hurt Harry.”_

“That’s not too bad,” said Ron in relief. “Fred and George will have fun with Skeeter calling you my boyfriend again, but they were already bringing that up any time they could so there isn’t much more they can do with it.”

Harry became aware of the noise level in the Great Hall increasing as the students who subscribed to the Daily Prophet read the article and showed it to their friends. For the rest of the day, Ron found himself the centre of attention as he was asked about Scabbers and how he had found out that his rat was Peter Pettigrew. At first, Ron stuck close to what had really happened, although he left out Snape’s involvement and was vague about how they had confirmed Scabbers’ real identity, but soon the story evolved. To Harry’s amusement, by the time they were in Care of Magical Creatures, Ron was telling everyone that Scabbers had transformed back into Peter Pettigrew and tried to attack Harry when he was discovered, only to be driven away by Ron.

That evening Harry received a short letter from Sirius about the article.

_Harry,_

_I assume you saw today’s Daily Prophet. Moony tells me that you have a subscription to it. What do you think? Skeeter’s quite the writer, isn’t she? Anyways, now that my story is out, it's time to put pressure on the Ministry to finally give me a trial. Moony’s written to Fudge already and we’re going to get some old friends to do so as well. After he’s had time to stew, the plan is for me to contact him and offer to turn myself in with the condition that I will be given the chance to declare my innocence under the influence of Veritaserum. If all goes well, my innocence should be established in time for me to come and watch you in the third task of the tournament as myself. Wish me luck._

_Sirius_

_PS You don’t need to worry that I will try to gain custody of you when this is all done. After living with you over the summer I can see that you are happy with Severus and Moony and I don’t want to take you away from your home and family. I will expect you to visit me often though, once I’ve finally got this house fit to live in._

Harry smiled as he folded the letter and tucked it into his pocket. Then he went to get parchment and a quill so that he could write to Minister Fudge himself. Later that night, when he had snuck down to his dad’s quarters, he showed the Potions Master both letters. As Severus read Sirius’ letter, Harry thought he saw a look of relief pass over his face, although it was gone too quickly for him to be sure.

“It is a good plan,” Severus commented when he had finished reading Sirius’ letter. “I wish that he and Moony had informed me of what they were up to before he talked to the reporter but the publicity should work to force Fudge’s hand.”

He then read through Harry’s letter to Fudge and suggested a few changes to the wording before approving of him sending it.

“You did a good job of concealing the fact that you have spent time with Black since the mutt escaped Azkaban,” Severus said approvingly. “And your plea for uncovering the truth of your parent’s betrayal should go a long way to convincing Fudge to give Sirius what he wants.” He smiled sardonically, “Especially since he can blame Crouch and Bagnold for Black’s wrongful imprisonment”

Harry and his dad spent some time discussing the next task, and Severus recommended some spells for Harry to learn to defend himself against the creatures he might encounter in the Black Lake. Severus also promised to make sure that Harry had a supply of Gillyweed in time for the task, before sending him off to bed.

After Harry had left, Severus took down the jar that sat above his fireplace and opened it to reveal a supply of Floo powder. He threw a pinch of powder into the flames and as they flared green he stepped into the fireplace and was gone.

When Severus arrived at the house in Hadon Gardens he was greeted by an ebullient Sirius.

“Sev! Have you come to celebrate with us? Rita Skeeter did an amazing job with the article, didn’t she?” Sirius exclaimed as soon as he saw Severus.

“It’s a little early to celebrate, isn’t it?” responded Severus. “There’s still a lot to do before you’re innocence is established.”

“You’re right, Sev love,” said Remus. “But there’s no harm in celebrating a successful start. How’s Harry taking the news?”

“He’s pleased, of course. He’s even written his own letter to Fudge, demanding that the truth of his parent’s betrayal be uncovered.” Severus smiled, “It was a very Slytherin letter for my little Gryffindor to write.”

Sirius chortled in glee, “Of course he wrote to Fudge, I knew I could count on Harry. Fudge should fold in no time.”

“When he does, make sure that everyone knows about it. You don’t want to give the Ministry any chance to sweep this under the rug,” Severus said seriously.

“Of course, that’s the plan. Rita’s going to keep covering the story for us and has assured us that the Daily Prophet will make sure everyone knows exactly what’s going on before I turn myself in,” Sirius assured him.

Severus nodded, “Good, then when the Ministry accepts your conditions for surrender, I’ll have an excuse to know about it. I’ll be able to descend on them and insist on providing the Veritaserum.” He smiled thinly, “We wouldn’t want you to walk free because of an inadequately brewed potion after all.”

Remus smiled, “Thank you, Sev. If you’re overseeing Sirius’ Veritaserum dose then we won’t have to worry about anything going wrong with that step. I’m sure that you’ll be able to put on a very convincing show of animosity towards Sirius. Now, how is Harry doing with preparing for the next task?”

Severus frowned, “He has a good plan of action and he’s working hard on preparing himself for the hazards of the Black Lake. He has made good use of the book we gave him. He should do well.”

“Except that we know that someone is using the tournament against Harry, and now he has to go to the bottom of the Black Lake alone,” said Remus.

Severus nodded jerkily, “How are we supposed to keep him safe if we can’t see him? Anything could happen to him under there and we wouldn’t know about it until it was too late.”

“I’m sure Dumbledore has put safeguards in place to keep the champions safe,” said Sirius. 

Severus snorted, “Like he’s done such a great job of keeping Harry safe so far.”

Sirius’s expression darkened as he remembered everything he had been told about Harry’s first and second year at Hogwarts.

“I think I have something that will give Harry a way to call for help if he needs it,” Sirius said. “I’ll get them to you as soon as I can find them.”

Severus nodded his thanks and took a pinch of Floo powder from the jar on the mantle. Just before he threw the Floo powder into the flames he turned to Sirius.

“Thank you for reassuring Harry that you wouldn’t try to gain custody of him when your name is cleared,” Severus said stiffly. Then he tossed in the Floo powder and was gone.


	23. The Second Task

February passed quickly for Harry. With his friend’s help, he was spending most of his time to researching the underwater denizens of the Black Lake and ways to deal with them, and practising any spell that seemed like it might be useful in the task. Halfway through the month, a bulky package arrived from Sirius and Remus containing a wetsuit and a small square mirror.

“The wetsuit makes sense, the lake is going to be really cold, but why would Paddy send you a mirror?” Hermione asked when Harry opened up the package.

Harry shrugged, “Maybe the letter will explain it?”

The letter wasn’t very long, mostly consisting of words of encouragement from both Moony and Sirius but it did explain the mirror at the end.

_ This is a two-way mirror. I’ve got the other. James and I used to use them to talk to each other while we were in separate detentions. Keep the mirror on you during the task, I’ve had a special pocket put into the wetsuit for you to put it in, and if you run into trouble while you’re under the lake say my name into it; you’ll appear in my mirror and I’ll be able to talk in yours. That way I’ll be able to come to your rescue if something goes wrong. Good luck, Pup. _

_ Paddy _

“That’s dead useful, mate,” Ron said. “I’ll bet The Professor’s relieved that you’ll have a way to call in backup if you need it.”

“Hopefully, I won’t need it,” said Harry, carefully putting the mirror away again. “Let’s head to the Room of Requirement. I want to try out this hex that Moony suggested in the letter.”

The next two weeks sped by and suddenly it was the evening of the second task. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville were on their way back to the common room, after one last practice session in the Room of Requirement, when Fred and George found them. They were looking for Ron and Hermione to take them to McGonagall.

“Don’t forget to go to bed on time, Harry,” admonished Hermione before following Fred and George. “You’ll want to be well-rested for the task. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Why do you suppose McGonagall wanted to see them?” Neville said as they continued to the common room. “It can’t be about us helping you with the tournament or she would have wanted me as well.”

Harry shrugged, “I’m sure that we’ll find out when Ron gets back to the dorm.”

But Ron didn’t get back to the dorm before Harry and Neville dropped off to sleep, although Neville stayed up for a while waiting for him. The next morning, Harry woke up bright and early, a flock of butterflies taking up residence in his stomach. He was glad that he had been able to use Occlumency to push the nervousness away the night before or he would never have gotten to sleep. The task didn’t start for a few hours, but Harry knew that he wasn’t going to get any more sleep so he quietly dressed, got Godric from his vivarium, and headed down for breakfast.

There weren’t very many students in the Great Hall that early, but Harry saw Cedric sitting at the Hufflepuff table, looking almost as nervous as Harry felt. Harry sat down and the Gryffindor table and picked at his food, trying to force himself to eat. He was about ready to give up on breakfast when Neville sat down across from him.

“Ron still sleeping?” Harry asked.

Neville frowned, “He’s not in bed, I thought he had gotten up with you.”

Harry’s stomach dropped as he put the pieces together, “ _ We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss _ . That’s why McGonagall wanted to see Ron last night! He’s what I’ll need to rescue from the merpeople!”

“What about Hermione? Why would they need her as well?”

“I’ll bet she’s going to be there for Krum to rescue. He’s pretty taken with her.”

“Ron’s not going to be happy about that,” Neville said.

“I don’t think he has to worry about it. After all, Krum will be going back to Bulgaria at the end of the Tournament and I don’t think Hermione is interested enough to sustain a long-distance relationship.” Harry then hissed to Godric, “Do you think my friend with the tangled head fur is interested in the grumpy one?”

“The grumpy one's mating displays have not been having the desired effect, the Weasel still has a chance, but he needs to find a better mating display. Making the bushy furred female mad gets her attention but not in the way he wants” Godric hissed.

Harry laughed and relayed his snake’s acerbic comment on Ron’s ‘mating display’ to Neville.

“Do me a favour, mate. When I get interested in a girl, don’t tell me what Godric has to say about it,” Neville said.

Harry nodded with another laugh but then he started to worry again. “I hope that Ron and Hermione will be alright down there. What if I can’t get to them? I’m sure that Krum will rescue Hermione all right but what will happen to Ron if I can’t rescue him?”

“I’m sure that they’re safe. Dumbledore wouldn’t let them be put in any real danger,” Neville said.

“I’m not so sure of that,” muttered Harry under his breath but he let the subject drop and contented himself with going over his notes on the inhabitants of the Black Lake and the spells he was planning to use to get past them, while Neville finished his breakfast.

After Neville had eaten the two boys headed up to the dorm so that Harry could change into his wetsuit. While they were there, Dobby popped in to give Harry the Gillyweed from his dad. Harry clipped the knife that Sirius had given him for Christmas to utility belt on the wetsuit, slipped the mirror into its hidden pocket and tested his wand sheath, making sure that it worked properly despite the snug fit of the wetsuit over top of it. Then he put his robe on over top of everything and headed down to the lake with Neville by his side.

When they arrived at the lake, Neville wished Harry luck, and took Godric from him, before going to sit in the stands ranged along the opposite bank. Harry walked around the lake to where the judges sat at a gold-draped table that had been set up at the water’s edge. Krum and Fleur were already there, standing beside the table and Cedric arrived only a couple of minutes after Harry did. Harry was surprised to see Percy sitting at the judges’ table, if Crouch was well enough to be visiting Moody, surely he was well enough to take over his duties as a judge again?

“Now that we’re all here, let’s get started,” Ludo Bagman said cheerfully and started positioning the champions along the bank of the lake, leaving about 10 feet between them. Once he was in position, Harry removed his robe, socks, and shoes and waited for the signal to start.

“What in the world is he wearing?” muttered Draco wrinkling his nose at the strange form-fitting outfit that Harry had on.

“It must be some sort of weird Muggle thing,” Blaise said absently, his eyes fixed on Fleur Delacour. “Potter was raised by Muggles wasn’t he?”

“You might be able to tell more about what Potter is wearing, if you actually looked at him,” Pansy said waspishly.

“Just admiring Delacour’s wand work,” said Blaise, not looking away from Fleur until she dove beneath the surface of the lake. “That’s a pretty nice bubblehead charm she cast.”

Once all the champions had disappeared into the lake the crowd settled down to wait.

“I’m not even sure why we’re bothering to watch this,” Draco huffed. “It’s not like we’ll be able to see any of the action.”

“Don’t worry Draco, I’ll provide you with some action,” Pansy purred as she snuggled into Draco’s side.

Blaise rolled his eyes and ignored his friends, as he watched the girls in the crowd around them. Time passed slowly until Blaise’s attention was caught by movement on the surface of the lake, an hour after the task had started. Cedric had returned with his hostage, Cho Chang. The Hogwarts students cheered as they swam to shore and were immediately bundled into towels by Madam Pomfrey. Blaise sighed, he had enjoyed the way Chang’s wet robes had clung to her as Cedric helped her out of the water. It was a pity that Madam Pomfrey had covered her up so quickly.

The next champion to return was Victor Krum, with his hostage. Blaise wasn’t particularly interested in their arrival, Granger might appeal to the Durmstrang champion but she wasn’t up to his standards, even in wet robes. The next champion to arrive on the other hand was much more interesting. Fleur Delacour resurfaced, accompanied by a couple of mermen who seemed to be escorting her back to shore. The Beauxbaton champion was visibly upset and when she reached the shore it became apparent that she had been attacked. Her robes were torn and she had many cuts on her face and arms.

Blaise was admiring the trim figure of the Beauxbaton champion, who had refused to allow herself to be bundled into a towel by Madam Pomfrey, when a commotion out in the lake drew his attention. Potter had just arrived at the surface of the lake and beside him was not only the red hair of his hostage, Weasley but a smaller blond head as well. All around them the wild, green-haired heads of merpeople emerged out of the water as well. On the shore Delacour screamed and tried to return to the water, only to be restrained by Madam Maxime.

“It looks like Potter rescued Delcour’s hostage as well as his own,” Blaise commented.

“Of course he did,” sneered Draco. “Always has to play the hero doesn’t he? He’s probably hoping that the extra rescue will make up for being the last to get back to shore.”

They watched as Potter, Weasley and the little french girl made it to shore and snickered over Percy Weasley running into the water to drag Ron back to shore. Dumbledore spoke with the chief merperson and then went into a huddle with the other judges, while Madam Pomfrey managed to get the three children who had just emerged from the lake bundled into towels and dosed with Pepper-up potion.

“It looks like Delacour appreciates Potter’s heroics,” smirked Pansy, with a sly look at Blaise, as the blond champion swooped down on Potter, kissing his cheeks, before doing the same with Weasley.

“Granger, doesn’t seem to happy about that,” commented Blaise, ignoring Pansy’s look. “I wonder which of the two she’s interested in, Potter or Weasley. Too bad for Krum, but that’s what he gets for dangling after a mudblood.”

The crowd fell silent as Bagman’s magically magnified voice announced the scores. The Slytherins weren’t surprised to hear that Potter had come in second to Diggory, despite being the last to return, thanks to his rescue of the young Delacour girl but they were surprised by Potter’s response to hearing his score.

“Is he actually protesting his score?” exclaimed Pansy. “Why would he do that?”

“Who knows why Potter does anything,” Draco said. “I can’t figure him out at all.”

“Why don’t you ask him, Draco?” Blaise suggested. “He must have some reason for this latest bit of insanity.”

“Why me?” whined Draco.

“Because he likes you Dracky,” cooed Pansy. “Now go and ask him. I want to know what he thinks he’s doing.”

Grumbling, Draco allowed his friends to pull him from the stands and push him towards where Potter had stomped off to after unsuccessfully arguing with the judges.

“Aren’t you cold, Potter,” drawled Draco, eyeing the dripping wet champion as he caught up to him.

“Draco!” Harry exclaimed, spinning around to face the other boy. “You agree with me, don’t you. I was the last one back, I shouldn’t have gotten a higher score than Krum. It’s not like anything would have happened to Gabrielle if I had left her there after all.”

“Why did you rescue her then?” Draco asked in surprise.

Potter blushed and ducked his head, “I don’t know. It just didn’t seem right to leave her there when I realized that Fleur wasn’t coming.” He groaned, “All that time waiting around to make sure I would be the last one back wasted, I still ended up being tied for first place.”

“Wait a minute, you were trying to be the last one back?” Draco exclaimed. “Why?”

Potter shrugged, “I don’t want to win. I never wanted to be a part of this tournament in the first place and it’s not really fair to Cedric to have me be the second Hogwarts champion. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be doing a good job of losing but at least I’ve survived the first two tasks, just one more to get through.”

As Draco tried to wrap his mind around the idea that Potter was deliberately trying to lose the Triwizard Tournament, Madam Pomfrey came over and herded Potter back to where the other champions and hostages were heading into the castle to get into dry clothes.


	24. The Locket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dobby finds something important among the items that Kreacher has rescued from being thrown out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that I'm late posting this. I had some trouble with the direction I wanted things to go after this chapter and ended up writing a couple of thousand words that don't fit into the story so I had to redo that chapter. I'm back on track now and nearing the end of the book so hopefully, I will be able to publish the next chapter on time next week. Although the Ontario teachers' strikes are going to cut into my writing time since I do most of my writing while my kids are at school and I will have at least one of them home on three days out of five next week, due to their teachers being on strike.

After the second task was over everyone wanted to know what had happened under the lake and so Ron had another bout of being the centre of attention since he was the most willing to talk about the experience. Then there was a brief bout of excitement over Rita Skeeter reporting that Sirius Black had been in contact with the Ministry and would be given a trial as soon as it could be scheduled. Sirius was in high spirits about finally getting the chance to prove his innocence when he met Harry and his friends at the Three Broomsticks during the Hogsmeade weekend in early March. Meanwhile, their workload continued to grow as the winter term continued. Hagrid finished with the unicorns and brought in some nifflers for the fourth year Care of Magical Creatures class and they had a test on Hex deflection in Defense Against the Dark Arts that left most of the class nursing minor injuries. Harry got into the habit of chatting with Remus and Sirius most evenings before bed, using the mirror that Sirius had sent him. They had returned to working on cleaning out Grimmauld Place while they waited for Sirius’ trial to be scheduled and they usually had amusing stories about what they had found lurking around the old house that day.

One morning, about a month after the second task, Remus finally managing to clear out the nest of doxies that they had found in the drawing-room curtains. Dobby had pulled Sirius away from the job to see something that he had found among Kreacher’s collection about ten minutes earlier and Remus decided to head down to the kitchen to find out what Dobby had discovered this time.

“Well, that’s one more job done,” Remus said cheerfully as he stepped into the kitchen, only to stop short at the sight of Sirius sitting at the table, with his face buried in his hands. Beside his elbow was a large gold locket that looked vaguely familiar.

“What’s wrong?” asked Remus.

Sirius looked up at his friend, his eyes red and his face wet, and gestured to the locket.

“Regulus … that little idiot …” he angrily wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand and turned to the elderly house-elf crouched in the corner of the kitchen staring at the locket. “Kreacher, tell Remus about the locket,” he ordered.

The house-elf looked up at Remus, who was shocked to realize that the elf was crying as well. “That is Master Regulus’ locket, he told Kreacher to destroy it and Kreacher tried everything but nothing would work …” the house-elf wailed. “And Master Regulus forbade Kreacher to tell any of the f-family what had happened but nasty Dobby  _ tricked _ Kreacher and n-now Master Sirius knows … Kreacher couldn’t t-tell Mistress e-even when she went mad with grief because Master Regulus had d-disappeared ...” Kreacher began to sob so hard that there were no more coherent words.

“Did he say that Regulus wanted him to destroy that locket?” Remus asked bewildered. “Why would he do that, and why couldn’t Kreacher destroy it?”

“Because it's one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes,” said Sirius. “Apparently, Riddle borrowed Kreacher to test the defenses he used to protect it, but he didn’t count on my brother ordering Kreacher to come home when Riddle was done with him. Go on Kreacher, tell Remus what you told Dobby, he’s not part of the family either, so you won’t be disobeying Reggie.”

Remus listened in horror as Kreacher told about his trip to the cave beside the sea and what had happened to him there. “Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island’s edge and he drank from the black lake …” the house-elf said, after telling them how Voldemort had made him drink the potion in the basin that the Dark Lord used to hold the locket. “And hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface… but Master Regulus had told Kreacher to come back so Kreacher did …”

“And then, when that idiot brother of mine heard what happened to his precious house-elf he decided to go after the locket himself,” Sirius growled. “It probably never even occurred to him to try to get someone to help him … to ask me for help …” He buried his face in his hands again.

“Kreacher, can you tell me what happened to Regulus?” Remus gently asked.

“It was a little while after Kreacher returned from the cave … Master Regulus had told Kreacher to stay hidden and not leave the house … Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell … and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord.”

Kreacher described taking Regulus to the cave and Regulus drinking the potion so that Kreacher could switch the locket that Voldemort had left there with one that Regulus had brought with him. Kreacher had switched the lockets and watched Regulus get dragged beneath the water by the inferi before returning to the house on Grimmauld Place, as he had been ordered to by his Master.

“Thank you for telling me,” Remus said gently to Kreacher, who had dissolved into tears again as soon as he finished his story.

Remus sat down at the table beside Sirius and looked at the locket.

“Isn’t that the locket that we found in the drawing room, the one neither of us could open? Are you sure that it’s a Horcrux?”

“What else could it be?” Sirius said. “Why else would Riddle go to so much trouble to protect it?”

“Do you think Regulus knew what it was?”

“I think so, Reggie would have been able to put the pieces together and figure out what it must be. He had read everything in the Black family library and there isn’t a Dark Art that isn’t mentioned in there somewhere.” Sirius looked down at his hands resting on the table, “I knew that Reggie had died because he tried to leave Voldemort’s service but I had always assumed that he panicked about what he was being asked to do and had been killed for it … To think that he had the nerve to do something like that …”

“I guess I’d better fetch the Basilisk venom,” Remus said, getting up from the table.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” said Sirius. “We’ll probably need to open it before we can destroy it.”

Remus studied the serpentine S inlaid on the front of the locket, “Riddle was rather proud of being a Parselmouth, wasn’t he. I think that we’re going to need Harry for this.”

Kreacher looked up at the two wizards with wide eyes. “Master is going to destroy the locket?”

Remus smiled at the house-elf, “Yes, Kreacher, we’re going to destroy the locket but first we need to go to Hogwarts to talk to Sirius’ godson.”

Kreacher drew himself to his full height, “Kreacher will help, Master. Kreacher can bring you to Hogwarts to find Harry Potter.”

Darting forward Kreacher, snatched the locket from the table. Then he grabbed Sirius and Remus and with a pop they disappeared.

Harry had just sat down for lunch when an agitated house-elf appeared beside Dumbledore, at the head table. Dumbledore listened to the house-elf gravely and then stood up and made his way to Harry.

“Harry, if you would come with me, please. There are some people in the kitchen who are looking for you,” the headmaster said genially, before continuing on his way out of the Great Hall.

Harry scrambled to his feet and followed Dumbledore, wondering what was going on.

“I’ve asked the elves to show your visitors to my office,” Dumbledore said when Harry caught up to him. “They are here on a matter of some importance.”

“Who’s here?” asked Harry as he trotted after the headmaster.

“You will see soon enough, my boy,” Dumbledore said as they arrived at the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the headmaster’s office. “Cockroach Cluster.”

The gargoyle moved aside, and the two wizards stepped onto the moving staircase that led to Dumbledore’s office. At the top of the stairs, they found Sirius and Remus waiting for them, along with an elderly house-elf who was holding a large gold locket clenched in his hands.

“Paddy, Moony, what are you doing here?” Harry asked as he followed Dumbledore into the room.

“Hello, pup,” Sirius said with a small smile. “We found something that we think we’ll need your help with. Kreacher, show Harry and the headmaster Regulus’ locket.”

Kreacher placed the locket on the desk that Dumbledore had seated himself behind.

“If I’m not mistaken, this locket is the one that was reputed to belong to Slytherin himself. I take it that you believe that it another of Tom’s Horcruxes?” Dumbledore said, studying the locket carefully. “How did you find it?”

Remus briefly told Kreacher’s story about Voldemort borrowing the house-elf to test the defenses in the cave by the sea and Regulus’ subsequent trip to the cave to replace the locket with a replica.

“Kreacher tried to destroy the locket but was unable to and it has been at the house at Grimmauld Place ever since. What else could it be but another Horcrux,” Remus finished.

“I take it you need Harry to open the locket,” Dumbledore said when Remus was done.

Remus nodded, “But we should have the means to destroy the locket on hand before Harry opens it.”

“I believe that Severus will be able to help us with that,” said Dumbledore as the door opened and Snape entered.

“I thought that Black would be the one upsetting the house-elves,” he said in resignation when he saw them. “What’s going on and what does it have to do with Potter?”

“Remus and Sirius have found one of Voldemort’s old possessions at Sirius’ house,” Dumbledore explained. “I intend to destroy it and I will need Harry’s help to do it. Now I believe that you are in possession of some basilisk venom?”

Severus pulled a small case out of his pocket and tapped it with his wand, muttering something under his breath. The case expanded in size and then opened. Severus extracted a securely stoppered vial from the case and handed it to Dumbledore.

“You carry the venom around with you?” Remus asked curiously.

“I’m not about to leave it lying around when someone’s been breaking into my potion stores and stealing ingredients all year,” said Severus.

“Thank you, Severus. You may return to your lunch now,” Dumbledore said.

Severus glared at the headmaster and then looked over at Remus, who gave him a brief nod. Satisfied that he would be told about what was going on at a later time Severus left. After he was gone Dumbledore took the vial of venom and opened a glass case that held a silver sword inset with rubies. He carefully poured the venom in the vial onto the blade of the sword and then removed it from the case.

“The Sword of Gryffindor is goblin made and so it will only imbibe that which makes it stronger,” said Dumbledore. “Now that it has been imbued with the Basilisk venom it will be able to destroy the locket. Harry if you would open the locket for me now?”

Harry hesitatingly walked to the desk and looked at the locket. He could sense a feeling of agitation rising from it like it knew that they were intending to destroy it.

“H-how do I open it?” he asked.

“The same way you opened the Chamber of Secrets,” Remus told him. “Riddle was sure that he was the only Parselmouth, he would have seen that as the most fitting way to secure the locket.”

“Once you’ve opened it, step back quickly, Harry,” warned Dumbledore, gripping the hilt of the sword in both hands and holding it above the locket, poised to stab it as soon as Harry had it open.

“Alright, here goes,” Harry looked down at the locket, which was starting to rattle on the desk as if there was something trapped inside of it trying to get away. Harry concentrated on the S on the front of the locket, imagining that it was a snake.

“ _ Open _ ,” he hissed and the locket swung open with a little click. Two dark eyes blinked up at him from within the locket and Harry backed away from the desk.

A voice hissed out of the Horcrux but before anyone could make out what it was saying Dumbledore swiftly plunged the sword into the locket. There was a long drawn out scream and then they were all staring at the sword sticking out of the desk, the shattered remains of the locket scattered around it. When he saw the destroyed locket, Kreacher flung his arms around Sirius’ legs and began to cry.

“Master has helped Kreacher finish the task that Master Regulus gave him. Kreacher can never repay Master ...”

Sirius looked down at the weeping house-elf with a look of distaste but when he spoke his voice was strangely gentle.

“Go back to the house Kreacher, I will see you there later.”

With some effort, Dumbledore pulled the sword back out of the desk and placed it back in its case. 

“Now that that is done, you had better get back to the Great Hall, Harry. You don’t want to miss lunch,” Dumbledore said sounding winded as if he had just run a race. He waited until Harry left before he spoke again. “Two of Voldemort’s Horcruxes have been destroyed but I am sure that there are more.” He looked at the two wizards standing in the office. “I would appreciate it if you would keep the exact nature of the locket to yourselves. Voldemort is gaining power again and we cannot risk him discovering that we know about his Horcruxes before we manage to destroy them all.”

Later, when Remus told Severus about Dumbledore’s request, Severus snorted, “I suppose that explains why he sent me away before he dealt with Horcrux. You’d think that he would realize that I already knew about the Diary.”

Remus smiled, “I didn’t bother to mention that I had told you that the Diary was a Horcrux. After all, it's not like this is the first secret we’ve kept from him.”

“It’s also not the most important secret that I have to keep from the Dark Lord,” said Severus. “We need to go over our contingency plans again. Harry must be kept safe if my occlumency shields prove to be inadequate.”

“Of course,” murmured Remus. “Although I hope that they are never needed.”


	25. Sirius's Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius is finally given a trial.

The day set for Sirius’ trial finally arrived during the Easter holidays. The courtroom was full of spectators due to the attention Rita Skeeter’s articles had brought to the case. Minister Fudge, clearly not happy with the number of people there, was just as obviously trying to put a good face on it. He had stopped at Rita Skeeter’s seat before taking his own place to give her a rehearsed little speech about how he was happy to right the wrongs of the earlier administration by giving Sirius Black a fair trial. He then seated himself and called the room to order before having Sirius brought in.

Sirius entered the courtroom with Remus at his side. They were flanked by two Aurors, who escorted Sirius to the chair at the centre of the room. Sirius sat down and let the chains snake over his arms, fastening him to the chair, without protest while Remus positioned himself beside the chair. Once Sirius was restrained, the Aurors stepped back and Severus came forward carrying a vial of clear liquid.

Fudge cleared his throat, “The accused, Sirius Orion Black, has agreed to be questioned under the influence of Veritaserum to satisfy the question of his guilt in the murder of Peter Pettigrew and 12 unnamed muggles. The Veritaserum, which has been verified by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, shall be administered by Severus Snape, under an Auror’s supervision. I,  Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic, will  be the interrogator.”

Severus administered three drops of the clear potion to Sirius under the watchful eyes of the Aurors. Sirius swallowed and as the potion took effect he relaxed in the chair, his eyes unfocused. Severus stepped back and nodded to Fudge. Fudge looked at the parchment he held in his hands and then addressed Sirius.

“Sirius Black, were you the Potter’s secret keeper?”

Severus carefully hid his relief that the Minister was asking the questions that had been agreed upon.

Sirius replied in a flat, inexpressive voice, “No, I was supposed to be but at the last minute I convinced them to change to Peter, to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me. I thought it was the perfect plan, Voldemort would be sure to come after me, Peter would be safe and that would mean that James, Lily, and Harry would be safe as well. But Peter was Voldemort’s spy all along. I found out what he had done, the night they died. I went to check on him, to make sure that he was safe but he was gone with no sign of a struggle. I knew then that something was wrong so I went to James’ house straight away. And when I saw the house destroyed, and James and Lily dead, I realized what Peter had done.”

A murmur ran around the courtroom as those present reacted to Sirius’ words. Fudge continued with the list of questions.

“Sirius Black, did you kill Peter Pettigrew?”

“No, I did not kill Peter. I wanted to kill him for betraying James and Lily, but he got away.”

The noise in the courtroom continued to grow as the questioning continued.

“Did you use magic to blow up a street and kill those Muggles?”

“No, when I cornered Peter he yelled for the whole street to hear that I’d betrayed James and Lily. Then before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself, and sped down into the sewers with the other rats.”

“How did you escape from Azkaban?”

The courtroom fell silent as Sirius replied in an emotionless voice.

“I don’t know how I did it. I think the only reason I never lost my mind is that I knew I was innocent. That wasn’t a happy thought, so the dementors couldn’t suck it out of me, but it kept me sane and knowing who I am. That helped me keep my powers so when it all became too much I could transform in my cell, become a dog.”

The courtroom broke into excited whispers again. Sirius’ previous answers had all been things that he had mentioned in his interview with Rita Skeeter, but he had not told her about being an animagus. This was new.

Sirius continued, “Dementors can’t see so while they could tell that my feelings were less human, less complex when I was a dog, they just thought that I was losing my mind like everyone else in there, so it didn’t trouble them. But I was weak and I had no hope of driving them away from me without a wand. But then I saw Peter in the picture of the Weasleys in the Daily Prophet that you had given me. I realized he was at Hogwarts with Harry, perfectly positioned to act if one hint reached his ears that the Dark Side was gathering strength again. Ready to strike and to deliver the last Potter to them. I had to do something, I was the only one who knew Peter was alive.”

The courtroom had grown silent again, the whispers about Sirius being an unregistered animagus dying away as he continued to speak. Despite the lack of emotion in his voice, the desperation that he had felt upon realizing that Peter was at Hogwarts with Harry bled through as he talked. More than one person there remembered what the Azkaban guards had reported Sirius saying in his sleep. Always the same words,  _ ‘He’s at Hogwarts.’ _

“It was as if something had lit a fire in my head, and the dementors couldn’t destroy it. It wasn’t a happy feeling, it was an obsession, but it gave me strength, it cleared my mind. So, one night when they opened my door to bring food, I slipped past them as a dog. It’s so much harder for them to sense animal emotions that they were confused. I was thin enough to slip through the bars. I swam as a dog to the mainland and journeyed north to slip into the Hogwarts grounds.”

Sirius stopped abruptly having answered the question and the courtroom grew noisy again. Fudge pointedly cleared his throat and waited for the noise to die down before asking the last question. Severus shifted slightly, his face an expressionless mask. This question was the dangerous one.

“How did you avoid being recaptured after your escape from Azkaban?”

“I spent most of my time as a dog living in the Forbidden Forest until this past summer. Then I was disguised as Patrick Lupin-”

“What?!” Severus roared, the picture of fury as he glared at Remus. “No wonder I had never heard of your so-called ‘cousin’ before this summer!”

“Please, Sev, we can discuss this later, now is not the time,” Remus said quietly. He turned to Fudge, “Minister, I believe that is all the questions that we agreed on. Would you please have Professor Snape administer the antidote?”

“Fine,” snapped Severus, pulling a vial from his robes. “But we will discuss it.”

Severus gave Sirius the antidote in the vial, looking like he would prefer to be administering poison. Sirius blinked and his eyes cleared. Sitting up straight, he looked around at the Fudge and the Wizengamot.

“I hope my answers were sufficient to establish my innocence,” he said with a smile. “I am, of course, happy to answer any other questions you might have.”

The witch seated beside Fudge leaned forward and peered at Sirius through her monocle.

“You say that you escaped Azkaban by transforming into a dog?” she asked. “Are you also an unregistered animagus like Peter Pettigrew?”

Sirius nodded, “Yes we all were, except for Moony here. It took us years but we finally managed it in our fifth year ... James was a stag, I was a dog and Peter was a rat. That’s how he managed to hide after faking his death, he got himself adopted by the Weasleys and stayed with them until I got too close and he ran away again.”

“Impressive,” said the monocled witch. “To achieve an animagus transformation at such a young age … very impressive indeed.”

Remus stepped forward, “I think that Sirius has more than paid for the minor crime of being an illegal animagus after twelve years of being imprisoned in Azkaban for a crime he didn’t commit.”

The witch nodded, “I agree. If Mr. Black is found to be innocent by the Wizengamot today then I am willing to overlook the issue of his status as an unregistered animagus.” She looked sternly at Sirius, “As long as he does register immediately following the conclusion of this trial.”

Sirius grinned, “Of course.”

Fudge cleared his throat again, “Are there any more questions for the accused?”

After a pause in which no one spoke Fudge called for the vote. Soon Sirius had been found innocent of the murder of Pettigrew and had his wand returned. On their way out Sirius stopped at the appropriate office to register his animagus form. When he came back out again, he found Severus and Remus arguing in the hallway, apparently oblivious to the ministry workers passing by.

“I didn’t tell you that Paddy was really Sirius because I didn’t want you to get in trouble if he got caught somehow. You were safer if you didn’t know,” Remus said as Sirius walked over to them.

Severus sneered, “I think you didn’t tell me because you knew that I wouldn’t have let him into my home if I knew who he was. I should have known that you would choose  _ him _ over me again. You don't care about what he tried to do to me, do you?” He glared at Sirius and then turned and walked away, his back rigid with anger.

“He’s really angry over our little prank, isn’t he?” said Sirius with a low whistle.

“Of course he is,” said Remus. “I invited an escaped convict to live with us without telling him who our new houseguest was, but what else could I do? It’s not like I could have let you keep living off of rats once I knew the truth. Hopefully, Sev will calm down enough to forgive me eventually but even if he doesn't, I don’t regret helping you.”

The two friends headed back into Muggle London, transfiguring their cloaks and robes to pass for Muggle clothing before they left the ministry building. Once they were safely away from the ministry Sirius started to laugh.

“I can’t believe you and Sev are staging a fake breakup of your fake relationship,” he said to Remus.

“It was Sev’s idea,” Remus admitted. “With Voldemort regaining strength, Sev’s preparing to return to his role as Dumbledore’s spy and ever since Rita Skeeter’s article calling me Harry’s mentor, he’s been afraid that Voldemort will try to use him to get at Harry if it still looks like we’re a couple. Your trial and the revelation that I’ve been helping you hide in plain sight as my ‘cousin’ was just the excuse he was looking for.”

Sirius sobered, “I hadn’t thought of that but Sev’s right, both he and Harry will be safer with less visible connections.”

Remus nodded in agreement. The conversation turned to lighter matters as they descended into the underground to make their way to Hadon Gardens. Upon arriving, they ran into Mrs. Brown who had just returned from doing some shopping.

“Let me help you with that,” Remus said, taking her bags from her.

“Thank you, Remus,” Mrs. Brown said with a smile. “Who’s your friend?”

Remus and Sirius exchanged a look. They had forgotten that the neighbours knew Sirius as Remus’ cousin Paddy and wouldn’t recognize him now that he was no longer disguised. Remus recovered quickly and introduced Sirius to Mrs. Brown as an old school friend who was visiting them.

“It’s funny,” remarked Mrs. Brown as she studied Sirius with a quizzical expression on her face. “I could swear that I’ve seen you before, or at least your picture …”

Sirius winced and then gave his most winning smile, “You would have seen my picture in the news about two years ago, I’d imagine.”

Remus frowned at him and whispered, “Sirius what are you …”

Sirius shrugged, “It was going to come up at some point, better to get it out of the way now.”

Mrs. Brown looked between the two men.

“I gather that there’s a story here. Why don’t you two come inside and you can tell it to me over some tea.”

Sirius and Remus followed her into her house and sat at the kitchen table while she bustled around putting away her purchases and preparing the tea.

“Now,” Mrs. Brown said as she brought the tea tray to the table, “why do I have an escaped convict sitting at my kitchen table?”

“It’s a long story,” said Remus slowly, accepting the teacup that Mrs. Brown handed him.

“Well, I have plenty of time,” Mrs. Brown said as she handed a cup of tea to Sirius as well.

Remus and Sirius spent the next hour telling their hostess a suitably edited story of how Sirius had been framed for a crime he didn’t commit and his subsequent escape and vindication. After Mrs. Brown’s questions had been answered to her satisfaction and the tea she had provided was finished they made their goodbyes and headed next door.

“I hope I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have,” said Sirius as they hung their transfigured cloaks up by the door. “I don’t know much about muggle law enforcement or their prisons.”

“You did fine,” Remus reassured him. “Although you are going to have to research Muggle methods of changing your appearance now.”

“I didn’t even know that Muggles could change their appearance so thoroughly without magic,” admitted Sirius ruefully. “I definitely wasn’t expecting your neighbour to figure out that Paddy and I were the same person.”


	26. Mazes and Visions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Champions learn about the third task. Harry has another dream about Voldemort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter done, finally. There's only a few left. Hopefully, I can pick up the pace a bit.

At the start of the summer term, Harry was hard at work preparing for the third task, even though he still didn’t know what it entailed. His dad had found out that they would have to get past a series of obstacles and he was busy learning a list of spells that had been compiled for him by Severus, Remus, and Sirius. Harry’s friends were pressed into service helping him and they spent all the time that they could spare from their increasing amounts of schoolwork in the Room of Requirement working on them. Finally, in the last week of May, Professor McGonagall held Harry back in Transfiguration.

“You are to go down to the Quidditch field tonight at nine o’clock, Potter,” she told him. “Mr. Bagman will be there to tell the champions about the third task.”

So at half-past eight that night Harry headed down to the entrance hall where he met Cedric coming up from the Hufflepuff common room. As they walked down the dark lawn to the Quidditch Pitch they speculated about what the task could be. Cedric stopped dead after they turned through a gap in the stands and walked onto the field.

“What’ve they done to it?” Cedric said indignantly, looking around the field.

The Quidditch field was covered by long low walls of hedges that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.

“Hello, there!” called a cheery voice.

Ludo Bagman was standing in the middle of the field with Krum and Fleur. Harry and Cedric made their way towards them, climbing over the hedges. Fleur beamed at Harry as he came nearer.

“Well, what d’you think?” said Bagman happily as Harry and Cedric joined them. “Growing nicely, aren’t they? Give them a month and Hagrid’ll have them twenty feet high. Don’t worry,” he added grinning, spotting the less than happy expressions on Harry’s and Cedric’s faces, “you’ll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we’re making here?”

No one spoke for a moment. Then -

“Maze,” grunted Krum.

“That’s right!” said Bagman. “A maze. The third task’s really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the centre of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks.”

“We seemply ‘ave to get through the maze?” said Fleur.

“There will be obstacles,” said Bagman happily. “Hagrid is providing a number of creatures .. then there will be spells that must be broken … all that sort of thing, you know. Now the champions who are leading on points will get a head start into the maze.” Bagman grinned at Harry and Cedric. “Then Mr. Krum will enter … then Miss Delacour. But you’ll all be in with a fighting chance, depending on how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?”

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. The spells that he had been putting so much effort into the past couple of months would definitely be helpful in keeping him safe inside the maze. Even better, once he was in the maze there was nothing keeping him from just staying away from trouble until someone else had found the cup and ended the task. He thought that he just might make it through this tournament alive after all.

As they began to wend their way out of the growing maze, Bagman hurried up beside Harry. Harry had the feeling that Bagman was going to start offering to help him again and he dropped back to where Krum was stumping along behind them.

“So, Krum,” he began awkwardly. “I saw you at the Quidditch World Cup, you know. That Wronski Feint was really something. I was hoping to get a chance to try it myself this year, but with the tournament …” Harry trailed off and shrugged.

Krum stared at Harry for a few seconds and then said, “You are a seeker as vell, then? You fly very vell. I vas votching at the first task.”

“Thanks,” said Harry, grinning broadly. “Maybe someday we’ll face each other at a Quidditch match.”

Seeing that Bagman was no longer hanging about waiting to talk to him, Harry bid Krum goodbye and hurried into the castle. Once he was inside he pulled out the map and looked to see where his dad was. When he activated the map he noticed that Mr. Crouch was on the school grounds, at the edge of the forest closest to the Quidditch patch. Idly wondering why the tournament judge had not been part of unveiling the third task if he was going to be at Hogwarts anyway, Harry searched the map until he found his dad’s name in the headmaster’s office with Dumbledore. Sighing, Harry deactivated the map and folded it back into his pocket. He would have to tell his dad about the third task another time. Harry hurried back up to the Gryffindor common room where Hermione, Ron, and Neville were waiting for him.

Harry didn’t sleep well that night, seeing the maze being grown for the final task had made it feel real in a way it hadn’t until that moment. He found himself going over the spells he had been learning over and over again for most of the night instead of sleeping, finally falling asleep in the wee hours of the morning. When Ron shook him awake in time to get to breakfast he could hardly drag himself out of bed. So, of course, his first class of the day was History of Magic with Professor Binns droning on his usual sleep-inducing manner.

Harry didn’t even realize that he had fallen asleep until he found himself in a dark room with a rat-faced man cowering on the rug beside a chair that sat with its back to Harry. A high, cold voice spoke from the depths of the chair.

“You let him escape, Wormtail,” the voice hissed, causing the cowering man to babble an incoherent mixture of excuses and apologies.

“Silence! Your blunder may have ruined everything! I should feed you to Nagini for your carelessness. ... I have let my faithful servant know what has happened and he will be on the lookout for our missing prisoner. You had better hope that he is successful in finding him.”

A large snake stirred and hissed at Wormtail, its tongue flickering. Wormtail flinched from the snake but did not take his eyes off of the man hidden in the chair.

The cold voice continued, “In the meantime, you need to be punished for letting Crouch get away, Wormtail …”

“My Lord …no ... I’m sorry”

  
The tip of a wand emerged from around the back of the chair. It was pointing at Wormtail.

“ _ Crucio! _ ” said the cold voice.

Wormtail screamed, screamed as though every nerve in his body was on fire, the screaming filled Harry’s ears as the scar on his forehead seared with pain; he was yelling too …

“Harry! Harry!”

Harry opened his eyes. He was lying on the floor of the History of Magic classroom with his hands over his face. His scar was still burning so badly that his eyes were watering. The pain had been real. The class was standing around him and Ron and Hermione were kneeling next to him looking terrified.”

“Are you all right?” asked Hermione.

Harry sat up and looked around, to his surprise Binns had actually stopped lecturing and was hovering nearby looking vaguely worried.

“Perhaps you had better go to the hospital wing, Mr. Perkins,” said Binns. “Your friends can accompany you.”

“That’s a good idea,” a relieved Harry agreed. “I have a bad headache.”

Harry quickly left the room followed by Ron and Hermione. As soon as they were in the hallway, with the classroom door closed behind them, Ron and Hermione started pelting Harry with questions.

“Are you all right, Harry? What happened?”

“You were clutching your scar, is it bothering you again? Didn’t it hurt when you were around You-Know-Who before? He can’t be anywhere about can he?”

“I don’t know, Ron,” Harry said. “I don’t think so. My scar hurt like this in the summer when I had a dream about Riddle killing an old muggle and he wasn’t anywhere near me then.”

“Did you just have another dream about Riddle?” Hermione asked.

Harry nodded, “He was torturing Wormtail for letting someone escape. I need to go see The Professor.”

Harry headed to the stairs that led to the dungeon, Hermione followed him protesting.

“You can’t go and see him now, Harry. He’ll be teaching a class and if you talk to him when it’s done you’ll be late for Charms.”

“Maybe you should go see Dumbledore. If you’ve been having visions of what Riddle is up to he should know about it,” Ron suggested.

“I guess you’re right, Ron,” Harry said. “I’ll go see Dumbledore and talk to The Professor at lunch. You two had better get to class.”

Harry’s friends insisted on accompanying him to Dumbledore’s office before heading to Charms, Ron arguing that there wasn’t much point in going back to History of Magic when it was almost over anyway. When they got there Harry gave the password that he remembered from when Dumbledore had brought him to his office to deal with Slytherin’s Locket. The gargoyle moved aside and Harry went up the stairs, while Ron and Hermione headed to Charms.

“Harry, my boy, what can I do for you?” Dumbledore said when Harry entered his office.

“I was in History of Magic just now, and - er - I fell asleep,” said Harry.

He hesitated here, wondering if a reprimand was coming, he knew his dad would have something to say about him falling asleep in class, even one as boring as History of Magic, but Dumbledore merely said, “Quite understandable. Continue.”

“Well, I had a dream,” said Harry. “A dream about Lord Voldemort. He was torturing Wormtail … you know who Wormtail -”

“I do know,” said Dumbledore promptly. “Please continue.”

“Voldemort was angry with Wormtail for letting someone escape. He threatened to feed him to the snake - there was a snake beside his chair. He then said that he had let his faithful servant know about what had happened and that he would be looking for the escaped prisoner. He said it was Crouch who had escaped and then he did the Cruciatus Curse on Wormtail - and my scar hurt.” Harry said. “It woke me up, it hurt so badly.”

Dumbledore merely looked at him.

“Er- that’s all,” said Harry.

“I see,” said Dumbledore quietly. “I see. Now, has your scar hurt at any other time this year, excepting the time it woke you up over the summer?”

“No, I - how did you know it woke me up over the summer?” said Harry astonished.

“Sirius wrote to me about it,” said Dumbledore. “I have been in contact with him ever since the end of the last school year.”

Dumbledore got up from his desk and started to pace, deep in thought.

“Professor?” Harry said quietly after a couple of minutes.

Dumbledore stopped pacing and looked at Harry.

“My apologies,” he said. He sat back down at his desk.

“D’you - d’you know why my scar’s been hurting me?”

Dumbledore looked very intently at Harry for a moment and then said, “I have a theory, no more than that. … It is my belief that your scar hurts both when Lord Voldemort is near you, and when he is feeling a particularly strong surge of hatred.”

“But … why?”

“Because you and he are connected by the curse that failed,” said Dumbledore. “That is no ordinary scar.”

“So you think … that dream … did it really happen?”

“It is possible,” said Dumbledore. “I would say - probable. Harry, did you see Voldemort?”

“No,” said Harry. “Just the back of his chair. But - there wouldn’t have been anything to see, would there? I mean he hasn’t got a body, has he? But … but how could he have held the wand?” Harry said slowly.

“How indeed?” muttered Dumbledore. “How indeed …”

“Sir, if my dream really happened then that means that Voldemort had Mr. Crouch prisoner and he escaped,” said Harry.

Dumbledore looked grave, “It is possible. He hasn’t been seen at the Ministry recently, reportedly due to ill health, and he has no one left to remark on his absence at his home since he sold his house-elf. I will have his whereabouts looked into, maybe we will be able to find him before Voldemort's servant does.”

Harry felt a sense of relief that Dumbledore was taking his vision seriously. He didn’t really know Mr. Crouch and hadn’t liked what he had seen of him but if Voldemort was after him then he needed help. Harry was sure that Dumbledore could find Mr. Crouch and help him if anyone could. Harry stood up, he had told Dumbledore everything he could about his vision and it wasn’t that long now until lunch when he could talk to his Dad.

“Harry,” said Dumbledore as Harry reached the door. “Good luck with the third task.”

“Thank you, Professor,” Harry answered and left Dumbledore’s office, heading for the dorm and his invisibility cloak.

“Do you think that Professor Dumbledore will find Mr. Crouch?” Harry asked his dad.

He had just finished telling Severus about the dream he had and his conversation with the headmaster while they ate lunch in his dad’s office.

“I’m sure that the headmaster will do his best,” Severus said. He looked thoughtful and then continued, “If the Dark Lord had Crouch then it may be that he was the one to put your name in the Goblet of Fire, the Dark Lord is very adept at using the Imperius curse. But I don’t like the sound of this faithful servant, you must continue to be very careful, Harry. I also don’t like that you had another dream like the one you had in the summer, have you been using your Occlumency?”

Harry nodded, “I clear my mind and reinforce my Occlumency shields every night before I go to sleep, but I wasn’t planning on falling asleep in class. I can usually stay awake in History of Magic but I hadn’t slept well last night thinking about the third task. Dad … do you think that Riddle is getting stronger?”

In answer, Severus rolled back his left sleeve and showed Harry the Dark Mark on his arm. It was much darker and clearer than it had been the last time Harry had seen it in the summer.


	27. The Final Task

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the third task finally arrives.

Over the next few weeks, Harry spent most of his free time in the Room of Requirement practising the defense spells and hexes that his dad, Remus, and Sirius had recommended to him. Ron and Hermione were helping him prepare, despite having to neglect their studying for the upcoming exams to do so. With their help and his dads’ and godfather’s support and advice, Harry felt even more prepared for this task than he had for the other two. After all, navigating obstacles and battling deadly creatures were things he had done before with a lot less preparation. Of course, he didn’t plan to do much of either during the third task if he could help it. Since he didn’t want to win the tournament he planned to try to find a quiet corner of the maze to wait in until one of the other champions had reached the cup and the task was over.

Harry still worried about what had happened to Mr. Crouch, who had not been found yet, but his dad reminded him that he had done all he could by telling the headmaster about his dream. Sirius and Remus also made sure to remind him that whatever was going on outside the walls of Hogwarts was not his responsibility whenever they talked to him over the mirror.

“Our priority is your safety, Harry,” Sirius said during one such conversation. “You should be safe at Hogwarts with your Dad there to watch over you but there's still one last task for you to get through before we can breathe easily. Concentrate on getting through that maze safely, and then we can turn our attention to other matters.”

On the morning of the third task, breakfast was a particularly noisy affair as the students were all excited about the task, which was scheduled to begin that evening after the exams for the day were done. Just before the end of breakfast, McGonagall came over to Harry.

“Potter, the champions are congregating in the chamber off of the Hall after breakfast,” she said.

“What’s that about?” asked Ron as McGonagall moved on, after delivering her message.

“The champion’s families are invited to watch the final task and to spend the day with them. I guess that’s where we’re supposed to meet up with them,” Harry explained. “I expect Moony and Paddy are waiting for me there, I’ll see you later. Good luck in History of Magic.”

“Thanks, I’m going to need it,” said Ron glumly as he got up to leave.

“If you stayed awake in class you might actually be prepared for the exam,” Hermione said tartly.

“Be fair, Hermione, you’re the only one who seems to be able to do that,” said Neville. “Why do you think the rest of us keep borrowing your notes? We'll see you later, Harry, have fun with your family.”

Ron, Neville, and Hermione hurried off and Harry headed into the chamber off of the Hall. He noticed Fleur Delacour get up from the Ravenclaw table and join Cedric as he also crossed to the side chamber and entered it ahead of Harry. Krum following shortly afterwards. Cedric’s parents had been waiting for him just inside the door, Harry politely greeted them as he entered the room, before being engulfed in a hug from his godfather.

“Harry! How are you holding up? Are you ready for tonight?” Sirius said excitedly, letting go of Harry again so that Moony could take his place.

Harry grinned at the wizards, “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. I’m glad that you two could come and watch me.”

“We wouldn’t dream of missing it,” said Moony with a smile. “And you’ve got some other visitors as well.”

Harry turned and looked at the rest of the room in surprise. He saw Victor Krum over in a corner conversing with his mother and father in rapid Bulgarian. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother. Fleur’s little sister Gabrielle waved to Harry from where she stood holding her mother’s hand. He waved back with a smile. Then he saw Mrs. Weasley and Bill standing in front of the fireplace, beaming at him.

“Surprise!” Mrs. Weasley said as Harry smiled broadly and walked over to them with Sirius and Remus in tow. “I knew that your godfather would be here but we wanted to come and watch you as well!” She bent down and kissed Harry on the cheek.

“You all right?” said Bill, grinning at Harry and shaking his hand. “Charlie wanted to come, but he couldn’t get time off. He said you were incredible against the Horntail.”

“He was great!” Sirius said with enthusiasm. “You should have seen him! That was the best bit of flying I’ve ever seen. Of course, I think he nearly gave Moony a heart attack with the way he was dodging the Horntail’s fire.”

Mrs. Weasley gave Remus a sympathetic glance. “That would have been hard to watch. I worry about Charlie being around those dragons all the time and he’s a full-grown adult who’s been trained for it. I can’t imagine having to watch Ron go up against a dragon.”

“You worry too much, Mom. Harry was brilliant and he was hardly hurt at all,” said Bill. “Fancy giving us a tour, Harry?”

“Yeah, okay,” said Harry and he led his four visitors out into the Great Hall. He had a very enjoyable morning walking over the sunny grounds with Sirius, Remus, Mrs. Weasley, and Bill. Sirius and Remus reminisced over the things that they had gotten up to during their school days much to Bill and Harry’s enjoyment. Mrs. Weasley’s eyes betrayed her amusement over their anecdotes but she expressed a fervent wish for them to never repeat those stories to Fred and George.

“Those two get into enough trouble on their own without you giving them any ideas,” she said.

“Of course, Molly, I wouldn’t dream of it,” said Moony earnestly.

Harry laughed remembering the hours Moony had spent in the Gryffindor Common room in his second year, regaling them with stories about the Marauders. Remus winked at him with a grin.

“How’s Percy?” Harry asked, turning the conversation away from what stories Remus might have told to the twins.

“Not good,” said Bill.

“He’s very upset,” said Mrs. Weasley, lowering her voice and glancing around. “The Ministry wants to keep Mr. Crouch’s disappearance quiet, but Percy’s been hauled in for questioning about the instructions Mr. Crouch has been sending in. They seem to think that there’s a chance they weren’t genuinely written by him. Percy’s been under a lot of strain. They’re not letting him fill in for Mr. Crouch as the fifth judge tonight. Cornelius Fudge is going to be doing it.”

“So Mr. Crouch is missing?” asked Harry.

Molly nodded, “It turns out that no one’s seen him since before Christmas and he wasn’t at his house when Kingsley went to check on him for Professor Dumbledore.”

Realizing that it was lunchtime they returned to the castle.

“Mom - Bill!” said Ron, looking stunned as he joined the Gryffindor table, along with Neville and Hermione. “What are you doing here?”

“Come to watch Harry in the last task!” said Mrs. Weasley brightly. “I must say, it makes a lovely change, not having to cook. How was your exam?”

“Oh … okay,” said Ron. “Couldn’t remember all the goblin rebels’ names, so I invented a few. It’s all right,” he said, helping himself to a Cornish pasty, while Mrs. Weasley looked stern, “They’re all called stuff like Bodrod the Bearded and Urg the Unclean; it wasn’t hard.”   
  


Sirius laughed, “I remember doing stuff like that. Is Binns still as boring as ever?”

Ron nodded, as he took a bite of his pasty. Remus smiled.

“I always enjoyed seeing what students would come up with when they couldn’t remember the material properly,” he said. “I was often tempted to award them points for sheer imagination.”

Fred and George came to sit next to Sirius and soon the three of them had their heads together talking quietly about something. After a while, George pulled a small bag out of his pocket and handed it to Sirius, who accepted it with a wide grin, quickly tucking it away in his pocket before Mrs. Weasley could see it. When Ginny arrived she sat beside Hermione, who happily answered the younger girl’s questions about the exam she was scheduled to write that afternoon. Harry was enjoying himself so much that he almost forgot about the task. He just wished that his dad could be sitting there with them as well.

The afternoon passed quickly, with a long walk around the castle accompanied by more stories of the Marauder’s schooldays. Remus and Mrs. Weasley spent some time discussing what had changed around Hogwarts in the time between her school days and his and the present time. She had been particularly interested in the Whomping Willow that had been planted after she had graduated. Then they returned to the Great Hall again for the evening feast.

The feast seemed to pass more quickly than usual and Harry had a hard time eating anything. All too soon it was dusk and time for Harry to hand Godric over to Sirius so he could join the other Champions and head down to the Quidditch pitch to face the maze. They stood in silence before the entrance of the maze as the stands began to fill. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions. As Professor McGonagall explained that they would be patrolling the outside of the maze watching for red sparks indicating that a Champion was in trouble, Harry looked at his dad. Professor Snape stared back at him with a forbidding scowl. Harry turned his attention back to the maze entrance as the patrollers set off to station themselves around the maze. He felt a lot better about the task knowing that his dad was close by, ready to rescue him if necessary.

Harry and Cedric were the first to enter the maze since they were tied for first place with eighty-five points each. At the first fork, they split up, Harry taking the left fork while Cedric took the right. As he moved deeper into the maze, Harry moved slowly and cautiously finally stopping to settle down in a corner. He leaned against the hedge, only to find himself being pulled farther into the greenery, branches wrapping around him and threatening to immobilize him. Harry quickly fought his way free, using a powerful cutting curse that his dad had taught him. He should have realized that it wouldn’t be that easy to avoid the dangers of the maze.

Harry continued moving through the maze, whenever he reached a fork in the path he was following he would look carefully down each branch and choose the one that had no visible dangers down it. So far he had been able to avoid any of the obstacles placed in the maze which made him hopeful that he was staying well away from the centre of the maze and the cup waiting for them there. The worst that he encountered was almost running into a Boggart avoiding the Blast-Ended Skrewt that Cedric had just had a run-in with. Harry was just about to try to find another path to avoid a golden mist that was floating in front of him when he heard Fleur scream from somewhere ahead of him. He took a deep breath and ran through the enchanted mist.

The world turned upside down. Harry was hanging from the ground, with his hair on end, his glasses dangling off his nose. After a moment of terror, he pulled a foot away from the grassy ceiling above him, determined to reach Fleur and find out what had happened to her. Immediately the world righted itself and Harry fell forwards onto his knees onto the wonderfully solid ground. He took a deep breath and hurried on until he reached a fork in the path. He looked around for some sign of Fleur but there was no way of knowing which way to go to find her. Harry took the right fork feeling uneasy. Hopefully, the lack of red sparks meant that Fleur had been able to get herself out of trouble.

Harry continued through the maze for another ten minutes, until he turned a corner and met another Blast-Ended Skrewt. It was enormous and Harry quickly turned and ran in the other direction. He was definitely not going to try to tangle with a ten-foot long Skrewt. He had finally stopped running when he heard something in the path running parallel to the one he had ended up on that made him stop dead.

“What are you doing?” yelled Cedric’s voice. “What the hell d’you think you’re doing?”

And then Harry heard Krum’s voice.

“Crucio!”

Horrified, Harry ran up his path trying to find a way to get to Cedric. When he couldn’t find one he used the cutting curse on the hedge again and managed to make a hole big enough for him to slip through. Looking to his right he saw Cedric jerking and twitching on the ground, Krum standing over him.

Harry quickly stunned Krum and dashed over to Cedric to help him up. After satisfying himself that Cedric was ok, Harry sent up sparks so that Krum would be collected by the patrollers and then he and Cedric split up again. Harry moved on through maze, worrying about the fact that he had been so close to Cedric and Krum in the first place. He was glad that he had been able to help Cedric but being so close to them meant that he was also close to the Triwizard cup, which was the last place he wanted to be.

For the first time, Harry cast the Four-Point spell and turned to move away from where he was sure that the centre of the maze was, only to encounter a large griffen pacing towards him. He turned and ran deeper into the maze until he reached another fork, but the path that should have lead him away from the centre lead him to a dead-end, forcing Harry to continue towards the location of the Triwizard cup. This continued, with every path that should have led out towards the edge of the maze either leading to a dead-end or blocked by one of the monsters that had been placed there by Hagrid. Soon Harry found himself in a long, straight path facing a sphinx.

“You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me,” the sphinx said.

Harry looked back the way he came. It had come clear to him that something or someone had been herding him towards the centre of the maze and the Triwizard cup the whole night. This was why his name had been put into the cup, Harry realized, there must be a trap of some sort set for him at the centre of the maze, and if he didn’t get there first, Cedric would be the one to walk into it. He turned to the sphinx.

“I assume you have a riddle for me?” Harry said. “Let’s have it.”

The sphinx sat down on her hind legs, in the very middle of the path, and recited:

_ “First think of the person who lives in disguise, _

_ Who deals in secrets and tells naught by lies. _

_ Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend, _

_ The middle of middle and end of the end? _

_ And finally, give me the sound often heard, _

_ During the search for a hard-to-find word. _

_ Now string them together, and answer me this, _

_ Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?” _ __  
  


Harry groaned to himself. He was awful at that kind of thing but he didn’t have much choice but to try to solve it at this point. After a lot of fumbling and asking the sphinx to repeat parts of the riddle, he finally found the answer, a spider was the thing he wouldn’t want to kiss. The sphinx smiled and moved aside for him. Harry dashed past the creature and ran for the centre of the maze.

Soon he saw the Triwizard Cup gleaming on a plinth at the end of the right-hand path at the next choice of paths that he came to. He hurried towards it but he was too late. Cedric entered the path in front of him and sprinted as fast as he could towards the cup and Harry knew that he wouldn’t be able to catch up to the larger boy.

“Cedric!” Harry called desperately, “Wait!” 

Then Harry saw something immense moving along a path that would intercept with the one they were on. Cedric was about to run into it but he hadn’t seen it yet, his eyes intent on the cup. 

“Watch out! On your left!” Harry bellowed as loud as he could.

Cedric looked around just in time to avoid the creature but tripped and lost his wand as he threw himself out of its path. Harry quickly cast his dad’s cutting curse on the spider and it gave a high pitched squeal as a large slash appeared in its side. The spider collapsed and curled up leaving Harry looking past it at an astonished Cedric, who was standing only feet from the cup.

“Harry, are you alright?” asked Cedric. “What was that spell you used?”

“I’m fine,” Harry said, ignoring the question about the cutting curse. “Listen, Cedric, whatever you do don’t touch the cup.”

“Of course not,” Cedric responded. “It’s yours. You should win. That’s twice you’ve saved my neck in here.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Harry said in frustration as he carefully made his way past the dead spider. “I don’t want to win the Tournament, I never even wanted to be a part of it. But someone wants me to win and I don’t think it's just so Bagman can clear his gambling debts. The cup is probably booby-trapped in some way.”

Cedric shook his head as Harry stopped beside him. “No, you need to take the cup.”

“Didn’t you hear me,” said Harry. “It’s a trap. Neither of us should touch it. I’m going to send up sparks. Hopefully, the teachers can figure out what’s going on when they get here.”

Suddenly, Cedric grabbed Harry’s wand arm.

“No,” he said again. “You need to take the cup,” and before Harry could react Cedric was pulling him forward towards the plinth that the cup was resting on.

“What are you doing, Cedric?” Harry demanded as he tried to pull his arm out of the larger boy's grip. “I told you it isn’t safe.”

“You need to touch the cup, Harry,” said Cedric and he pushed Harry forward.

Harry desperately tried to avoid touching the cup but it was no use. As he fell across the plinth he felt a jerk somewhere behind his navel and the maze disappeared in a howl of wind and swirling colour.


	28. Voldemort's Mark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus waits for Harry to complete the third task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this chapter took so long. This past week was a really busy one and I had trouble with my characters going off in a completely different direction than I had planned on, slowing down my writing. I have no idea how the current state of emergency in Ontario is going to affect how quickly I can finish this fic. On the one hand, I'm not working or going anywhere but on the other hand, my kids are home all day and wanting to use the computer as well. I'm also going to have to put some effort into making sure that my two youngest get some school work done while their schools are closed.

Severus patrolled his side of the maze, the worry he felt for his son building as the minutes ticked by. After the third time Bagman had blown his whistle, sending Fleur, the last of the Champions into the maze, silence had fallen over the Quidditch pitch, broken only by quiet conversation amongst the spectators filling the stands. Severus was not sure how much time had passed when the scream sounded and Minerva made her way into the maze to rescue the first Champion to be eliminated from the task. He was torn between increased worry at the reminder of how dangerous the maze could be and relief that it wasn’t Harry who had screamed. As he watched Minerva emerge from the maze with Delacour to hand her over to Madam Pomfrey, Severus found himself wishing that it had been Harry after all. At least then he would be safe in Madam Pomfrey’s care and alive, instead of still being in danger from whatever lurked inside the maze.

More time passed before the quiet of the night was broken again, this time by more masculine yells of pain. As the four patrollers stopped to listen and try to identify where in the maze the cries were coming from, red sparks flew into the air and hovered above a point towards the middle of the maze. This time it was Moody who ventured into the maze to rescue the fallen Champion. He soon emerged with Krum who seemed rather dazed but otherwise unharmed.

Silence fell again as the spectators watched Moody hand Krum over to Madam Pomfrey. The mediwitch fussed around her patients as Moody returned to patrolling. Severus watched for more sparks and fretted about his son’s well being as he continued to walk his side of the maze. The night continued to grow darker as he waited for any indication of what was happening inside the hedges. Severus stiffened as shouts came from the centre of the maze. He could not understand the words but he recognized Harry’s voice. Harry had evidently made it to, or almost to, the Cup. But had run into some sort of trouble there. It grew quiet again but Severus continued to watch and listen for any further indication that Harry was in trouble. When the sparks showed above the maze he was the first to cast the spell that the patrollers had been given to force the hedges to move out of their way so that they could reach the Champions as quickly as possible.

Severus hurried to the sparks floating at the centre of the maze to find Diggory waiting for him beside the empty plinth where the Triwizard Cup had been.

“Where is he? What happened to Harry?” Severus snapped as he reached the boy.

“He touched the cup and vanished,” Diggory said. “Didn’t he show up outside of the maze? I assumed that the cup had been made into a portkey to take the winner out of the maze when he touched it.”

“He wasn’t there when I saw the sparks appear,” said Severus. “You’d better tell me everything that happened while I take you to Madam Pomfrey.”

After delivering Cedric to the mediwitch and confirming that Harry hadn’t appeared outside of the maze with the cup, Severus headed to where the judges sat in the stands.

“Severus, my boy,” Dumbledore said jovially. “I see three of our Champions have failed at the task. It looks like Harry will be the winner of the Tournament after all.”

Severus scowled at the headmaster. “It appears that Potter’s entry into the Tournament was part of a plot to remove him from the safety of Hogwarts. The Triwizard Cup was a portkey -”

“Of course it was,” Bagman interrupted. “It was set to transport the first Champion to touch it to the outside of the maze so that we would know who had won the tournament.”

“So how do you explain the conspicuous absence of Potter from the Pitch?” Severus said scornfully. “According to Diggory, Potter touched the cup and vanished some time ago, but he has yet to reappear at the edge of the maze.”

“This is absurd,” exclaimed Fudge. “There must be some mistake. The portkey can’t have been tampered with, why I created it myself and it’s been safely stored here at the school ever since.”

Ignoring the other judges, Dumbledore rose from his seat and hurried to the edge of the maze. Once there he pulled out his wand and began to cast a series of spells. As Severus followed the Headmaster he felt a sudden burning pain in his left arm. He knew what he would see if he pulled up his sleeve, the Dark Mark, jet black instead of its usual red. Voldemort was calling his Death Eaters to him. Severus ran to Dumbledore who turned to the Potions Master looking suddenly old and worn.

“I cannot detect him anywhere within the wards of Hogwarts. It is as we feared. The Tournament has provided Voldemort with the means to remove Harry from the safety of the school grounds. We must hope that he will be able to prevail against Voldemort again as he did the other times he has faced him.”

“I can find him,” said Severus urgently. “The Dark Lord is calling me to him. If I answer the call it will bring me to him and once I’m there I will find a way to rescue Potter.”

Dumbledore shook his head, “Now that Voldemort has returned we will need the information that you can bring us if we are to defeat him again. I cannot let you betray your true loyalties to him just yet.”

“So you mean to just leave the boy in his clutches, and hope that a fourteen year old will be able to escape from the Dark Lord and his followers?” Snape sneered. “What will my spying on the Dark Lord gain us if we have already lost your precious saviour? Or are you assuming that he will live because of the prophecy? I did not know that you put so much stock in it.”

“What’s going on?” Sirius asked, running up to where Severus and Dumbledore were arguing with Remus right behind him. “Where’s Harry? Has something happened to him?”

“The Triwizard cup was tampered with. The Dark Lord has him as we speak,” Severus informed Sirius before turning back to the Headmaster. “I am going to rescue him, no matter what your opinion on the matter is.”

“We’re coming with you,” Sirius said.

“And how will you explain your presence there? We will be killed before we have a chance to do Potter any good,” snapped Severus. “I will go alone, the Dark Lord will believe me to be there to affirm my loyalty to him and I will be able to wait until I have an opportunity to rescue the boy.”

“Harry didn’t have his invisibility cloak with him when he went into the maze. He’ll have left it in his trunk,” Remus said. “Sirius and I can use it to conceal our presence from the Death Eaters.”

Severus gave a sharp nod, “That is acceptable. Meet me in my quarters once you have the cloak. We can use my Floo to leave Hogwarts anti-apparition wards.”

“Severus, be careful. Leave the rescue to Sirius and Remus if you can. Remember that we need you to stay close to Voldemort,” Dumbledore said. He then turned to the other two. “The cup is still a portkey, if you can get it to Harry then he will be returned to this spot. I will wait for him here. Good luck.”

Shortly the three wizards were gathered before the fireplace in Severus’ quarters. Severus was dressed in the voluminous black robes of a Death Eater and held a white mask in his hands.

“I’m not sure if I can bring both of you with me when I follow the Dark Lord’s call,” he said to Sirius and Remus.

“I’m coming with you,” Remus said. “I have Harry’s mirror and Sirius should be able to use the connection between the mirrors to follow me once I’m there.”

Severus nodded, pulling on his mask, “You go through first then and be ready to take my arm as soon as I exit the Floo. I will not wait for you.”

Remus threw the Floo powder Severus offered him into the flames and pulling the invisibility cloak around his shoulders he disappeared into the Floo, Severus following close behind. As he stepped away from the fireplace in his London house, Severus felt invisible hands grasp his left arm above the elbow. Pulling back his sleeve he laid his right hand on the Dark Mark and following its pull he spun on his heels and disappeared.

Severus found himself in a shadowy graveyard, the sibilant voice of the Dark Lord coming from within a circle of men clothed as he was, in black hoods and masks. He felt Remus release his arm and move away from him as he quietly walked towards the gathering of Death Eaters surrounding their master.

As he drew near, still unnoticed by the Death Eaters listening to Voldemort, he saw that the Dark Lord was walking the inside of the circle stopping to talk to one or another of them as he went. Severus watched as Voldemort paused by a large gap in the circle.

“And here we have six missing Death Eaters … three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return ... he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever … he will be killed of course …”

Severus shivered as he realized that the Dark Lord was referring to him. He strengthened his Occlumency shields, guarding his thoughts with his memories of the angry youth that had first entered Voldemort's service and reinforcing those memories with all the times that Dumbledore had angered him over his years as Hogwarts’ Potions Master. He stepped forward into the gap in the circle and prostrated himself before his Lord, kissing the hem of his robe.

“Severus,” hissed Voldemort. “You are late to my little party.”

“I am sorry, Master,” Severus said as he remained kneeling before the Dark Lord. “I came as soon as I could without raising Dumbledore’s suspicions.”

“Look at me, Severus,” Voldemort said. “You have spent so long in the service of my greatest enemy. I heard that you had turned spy for him …”

“Never my Lord,” Severus said as he looked up and met Voldemort’s gaze. “I was positioning myself to spy on him for you when you disappeared and I stayed in his service hoping to be of use to you when you returned …”

He felt Voldemort enter his mind, viewing the memories that Severus had arranged for him to see.

“So … Dumbledore is aware that I have the boy … but he does not know about my faithful servant who has sent him to me …” Voldemort said thoughtfully as he withdrew from the Potion Master’s mind.

The Death Eaters stirred, and darted sideways glances towards each other at these words and then looked at Harry, where he was bound to the gravestone in the middle of their circle. 

“Yes,” said Voldemort, a grin curling his lipless mouth, “Harry Potter has kindly joined us for my rebirthing party. One might go so far as to call him my guest of honour.”

There was a moment of silence. Severus thought furiously. There was no way for him to rescue Harry when he was surrounded by the Death Eaters like this. Where were Remus and his mutt? A Death Eater stepped forward and Lucius Malfoy’s voice spoke from under the mask.

“Master, we crave to know … we beg you to tell us … how you have achieved this … this miracle … how you managed to return to us. …”

As Voldemort began to talk, Severus relaxed slightly. The longer Riddle spent gloating, the more time for Remus and Sirius to get into position to rescue Harry. He watched as the Dark Lord demonstrated that he could touch Harry now, filing the information away to be analyzed with Dumbledore later. He would need to know how this new development would affect the Blood Wards that kept Harry safe over the summer. Severus refused to accept the possibility that they would not have Harry with them to keep safe that summer, they were going to rescue him. But where were Remus and Sirius?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This did not go in the direction I had meant it to. I did not intend to have anyone go to rescue Harry, I thought that he would make his own way back as in the book but Severus, Remus, and Sirius insisted on going on a rescue mission.


	29. Rescuing Harry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus and Sirius attempt to rescue Harry from Voldemort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter finished. I'm almost done fourth year. I'm currently working on what I think will be the last chapter and I expect to have it finished by the end of the week. Then I'll post it as soon as my beta reader is done with it.

Once Sirius had joined Remus in the graveyard where Riddle had gathered his Death Eaters, they split up. Sirius transformed and went to search for the cup outside of the circle of Death Eaters, while Remus slipped through the gap in the circle beside Severus, looking for Harry. As they had expected Harry was in the centre of the circle, tied to a gravestone and glaring at Riddle as he talked to his followers. Remus ignored the Dark wizard’s words as he crept across the grass beneath the Invisibility Cloak. When he reached Harry he quietly whispered in the boy’s ear.

“We’re going to get you out of this, Harry. I’m going to cut the ropes holding you and then I need you to move away from the gravestone so that I can get you under the Cloak. Then we’ll use the distraction that Sirius is going to provide to get to the Cup. It will take us back to Hogwarts. If we get separated, you get yourself to the Cup and get out of here. Don’t worry about us.”

Harry nodded slightly to show that he had heard and Remus cast a wordless disillusionment spell on himself and waited for Sirius’ signal. When his mirror shook in his pocket, letting him know that Sirius had found the Cup and was ready for them, he cut the ropes binding Harry with a quick swipe of his wand. As soon as the ropes dropped Harry dove to the side, away from Voldemort, and Remus covered him with the Invisibility Cloak. Voldemort stared in astonishment as the boy disappeared before his eyes.

“Find him!” he shrieked. “Don’t let him get away!”

The Death Eaters moved in tightening the circle so that there was no room for Harry to slip through and then all hell broke loose behind them. Wormtail shrieked in fear as something exploded directly behind him, knocking him to the ground. Following on the heels of the explosion, fireworks started going off around the Death Eaters. Rockets flew through the air, forcing them to duck out of their way and a fire breathing dragon soared over their heads into the middle of the circle where Voldemort stood.

“Go!” Remus whispered from behind Harry. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Harry ran towards the Death Eaters blocking his way to the Cup and his wand, only to see them collapse as they were hit by a pair of stunning spells. One coming from behind Harry and the other from outside the circle of Death Eaters. Harry darted through the gap in the circle, leaping over the downed Death Eaters. He ducked behind a gravestone as the air around him lit up in spellfire. 

Another jet of red light streaked past him and Harry saw Sirius crouched behind a large elaborate headstone returning fire to the Death Eaters. He made his way over to his godfather, staying low to avoid being hit by a stray spell.

“Harry, is that you?” Sirius said when the teen joined him behind the gravestone.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Harry whispered, remembering that Sirius wouldn’t be able to see him beneath the Invisibility Cloak.

“Good, here’s your wand. Summon the Cup and get out of here,” Sirius ordered, holding out Harry’s wand in the hand that wasn’t occupied with firing spells at the Death Eaters.

“But what about Moony?” Harry protested, even as he reached out from under his Cloak to take his wand. “We can’t leave him behind!”

“Don’t worry about Moony and me. You just get yourself out of here,” said Sirius. “We’ll be alright.”

Harry shook his head stubbornly, forgetting that Sirius couldn’t see the motion.

“I’m not leaving without you. It’s bad enough that we need to leave Dad here, at least Riddle thinks that he’s a loyal Death Eater, if they catch you or Moony they’ll kill you!”

Harry peered out from behind the gravestone to see Moony, his disillusionment spell long gone, running towards them. Sirius leaned out from concealment to shoot off a blasting spell at the ground behind Remus. 

“Kill them and find the boy!” Voldemort screamed as the Death Eaters flinched back from the explosion.

Harry cast the strongest Protego he could between Moony and the Death Eaters pursuing him. He fought to keep the shield up as several spells reflected off of it. Then a green jet of light passed through his shield and narrowly missed Moony as he flung himself behind the gravestone that concealed Sirius and Harry.

“Harry, what are you still doing here? Get the Cup and go!” Remus said when he realized that he had landed on his son, who was still covered by the invisibility cloak.

“Now that we’re all here, I’ll get the Cup,” said Sirius. “Get ready!”

Harry pushed the cloak back so that it hung down his back and Sirius and Remus each wrapped an arm around him. Sirius summoned the Cup to them and the three wizards grabbed it as it flew to them. As soon as Harry touched it by the handle he felt the jerk behind his navel that meant the Portkey had worked. It sped them away in a whirl of wind and colour, pursued by Voldemort’s scream of rage.

Harry staggered as they landed, only to be caught by Remus before he could fall. He looked up at the astonished faces in the stands surrounding them and then around at the headmaster standing near him. His arm hurt and his scar burned dully on his forehead, and he was desperately worried about his Dad, left behind with the Death Eaters and an enraged Voldemort but he knew that they needed to tell Dumbledore what had happened.

“Voldemort’s back,” he said tiredly. He’s got his body back …” There was something else, something important, Harry pushed through the throbbing in his head. “He said there was someone here at Hogwarts working for him. He’s the one who tampered with the Cup, I think he used the Imperius on Cedric to make sure that I was the one to touch the Cup first … maybe on Krum as well …”

Dumbledore conjured a squishy armchair for Harry and he gratefully let go of Remus to sink into it.

“What’s going on? What’s happening? Why are these two with the Champion? If there’s been any cheating going on …”

Cornelius Fudge had arrived. Sirius drew himself up to his full height and looked down his nose at the blustering Minister of Magic.

“What is going on is that there was a plot to use the Triwizard Tournament to kidnap my godson right out from under our noses,” he said, his voice cold with anger. “Someone added a new destination to the Portkey that was to bring the victor to the outside of the maze when they reached it. When Harry was forced to touch the Triwizard Cup by Cedric Diggory, who had been Imperiused, he was transported to a graveyard where he was forced to witness Voldemort’s resurrection. Fortunately, Remus and I were able to find him and rescue him before Voldemort got around to trying to kill him. Now if you’ll excuse us, I would like Madam Pomfrey to look Harry over.”

Fudge turned white at Sirius’s words but he didn’t move out of the way.

“You-Know-Who … returned? Preposterous!”

“I saw him,” Sirius said. “Remus and I both did.”

A slight smile dawned on Fudge’s face, “I’m sure that that’s what you think you saw … but after all those years in Azkaban, you must admit that you’re hardly the most reliable witness …”

“I was there as well, Minister,” growled Remus, moving forward to confront the Minister. “I was as close to Voldemort as I am to you right now.”

Fudge’s expression did not change, he turned to Dumbledore.

“Surely you don’t believe that Lord Voldemort has returned on the say so of a man who spent twelve years in Azkaban and a werewolf? The very idea is preposterous.”

“I have no reason to doubt them,” said Dumbledore. “But there is no time to debate it right now-”

“There’s nothing to debate,” Fudge blustered. “It’s clear that Potter has been cheating all along, from the moment that he entered the Tournament and this cock and bull story is a sorry attempt to cover his tracks. I am afraid that I must disqualify him and award the Cup to Cedric Diggory.”

Harry tuned out Fudge’s voice and leaned back in the armchair. His head was throbbing more than ever and he couldn’t care less about who won the Tournament. As he closed his eyes against the pain in his head, calloused hands hauled him out of the chair. He felt the invisibility cloak slip off of his shoulders.

“It’s alright son, I’ve got you … come on … hospital wing …”

“I need to stay … Moony and Sirius will worry …” Harry protested feebly.

“You need to lie down … Come on now …”

Harry blearily opened his eyes to squint at the man half pulling, half carrying him off the pitch. It was Mad-Eye Moody. Harry closed his eyes again, something wasn’t right here but he wasn’t sure what it was. Moody might not be the best choice for teaching children but he definitely wasn’t a Death Eater. Everyone knew how much he hated Voldemort’s followers. Harry answered the questions Moody was asking him about what had happened and hoped that Moony and Sirius would find them soon.

When Moody opened the door to his office, Harry stumbled into him leaving the doorway clear for a moment before Moody sat him down and closed the door behind them. Harry heard a key scrape in a lock and felt a cup being pushed into his hands.

“Drink it … you’ll feel better … come on, now, Harry. I need to know exactly what happened. …”

Harry sniffed the potion in the cup. Discovering that it was just Pepper-up potion he drained the cup. Immediately his exhaustion lifted and his headache faded to a dull throb. Harry looked up at Moody and saw that he was as white as Fudge had looked upon hearing that Voldemort was back and both eyes were fixed unblinkingly upon Harry’s face. Moody resumed questioning Harry about Voldemort’s resurrection and then he revealed that he had been the one to put Harry’s name in the Goblet.

“Stupefy!” A red jet of light flew across the room and Mad-Eye collapsed. Sirius appeared from under the Invisibility Cloak and walked over to Moody.

“Huh!” he said, nudging Moody with his foot. “Whoever this is, he did a bang-up job of impersonating Mad-Eye. He probably would have gotten away with it too if he hadn’t taken you out of Dumbledore’s presence after you told him that there was a Death Eater at Hogwarts.” He looked anxiously at Harry. “Are you alright? That potion wasn’t anything harmful, was it?”

“Of course not,” said Harry. “I wouldn’t have drunk it if it was. It was just Pepper-up, I actually feel a lot better now.”

Sirius grinned at him, “Good. Moony and Dumbledore should be here soon, I’d better unlock the door for them.”

Dumbledore looked furious when he entered the office. He immediately went to where Moody was lying and placed a foot underneath his unconscious body, and kicked him over onto his back. Meanwhile, Remus was looking Harry over, making sure that he hadn’t been injured any further by the events of the night. Once he was reassured that his son was doing as well as could be expected considering everything that had happened to him he turned back to Dumbledore.

“I hope that this isn’t going to take long, Dumbledore. I’d really like to get Harry to the Hospital Wing.”

“It won’t be much longer, Remus,” Dumbledore said. “But Harry needs to understand. He needs to know who has put him through the ordeal he has suffered tonight and why.”

“That’s not really Moody, is it?” asked Harry.

“It is not,” Dumbledore answered quietly. “You have never known the real Alastor Moody. The real Moody would not have removed you from my sight after what happened tonight. The moment he took you, I knew - and I sent Sirius after you. Fortunately, you had left your father’s cloak behind.”

Dumbledore bent down over not-Moody’s limp form and removed his hip flask and a set of keys on a ring. Then he turned to Remus.

“Remus, please fetch me a truth potion from Severus’ stores. I believe that you still have access to them, do you not?”

Remus nodded and left the office. Dumbledore walked over to a large trunk with seven locks that stood there. He tried all the keys one after another, each time opening the trunk to reveal different contents. Then finally he placed the seventh key in the lock and threw open the lid. An underground room was revealed and lying on the floor some ten feet down, apparently fast asleep, thin and starved in appearance was the real Mad-Eye Moody. His wooden leg was missing and so was his magical eye and chunks of his grizzled hair were gone. Harry looked from the sleeping Moody in the trunk and the unconscious Moody on the floor. He had realized that the imposter must have been using Polyjuice potion but he hadn’t thought about what that would mean for the real Moody. Dumbledore climbed into the trunk and asked Harry to pass him the imposter's cloak to cover Moody. After tucking the cloak around Moody, Dumbledore climbed out of the trunk again and sat down to wait.

After several minutes the potion began to wear off and the face of the man on the floor began to change. Soon the wooden leg had fallen to the floor and the magical eyeball had popped out and rolled away as they were replaced by the body parts in question growing back. Lying before them was a pale-skinned, slightly freckled, man with a mop of fair hair. Remus, who had arrived back at the office, McGonagall behind him, stared from the doorway.

“Crouch!” Sirius said in astonishment. “I thought he was dead!”

“Please call Winky, Sirius,” said Dumbledore.

Winky appeared as soon as Sirius called her, and let out a piercing shriek upon seeing the man lying on the floor.

“Master Barty, Master Barty, what is you doing here?”

She flung herself forward onto the young man’s chest.

“You is killed him! You is killed him! You is killed Master’s son!”

“He is simply stunned, Winky,” said Dumbledore. “Step aside, please. Remus, you have the potion?”

Remus handed the small bottle of clear liquid that he held in his hand. Dumbledore pulled Crouch into a sitting position, leaning against the wall, and forced his mouth open, pouring three drops of the potion inside it. Then he pointed his wand at the man’s chest and said, “Rennervate.”

Crouch opened his eyes, a vacant expression on his face. In response to Dumbledore’s questions, he told how his mother had switched places with him in Azkaban and how his father had kept him prisoner in his home, hidden by an invisibility cloak and controlled by his father’s Imperious. They heard about Bertha Jenkins discovering Barty Crouch Jr. and the memory charm that permanently damaged her memory. Then Dumbledore asked about the Quidditch World Cup. Crouch told them about attending the World Cup hidden under the invisibility cloak and guarded by Winky. He had stolen Draco’s wand out of the pocket of his robe while they were all up in the top box and he was the one who had cast the Dark Mark that night. Mr. Crouch had found his son stunned in the woods near where Winky had lain and after he had sold Winky to Sirius he had brought his son back to his house.

At the next part of the story, Crouch showed emotion for the first time since Dumbledore had revived him. An insane grin spread across his face as he recounted how Voldemort had come for him carried by Wormtail and placed his father under the Imperious. Crouch and Wormtail captured Mad-Eye Moody and Crouch took his place so that he could ensure that Harry was the first to touch the Triwizard Cup that Crouch had altered into a Portkey that would take Harry to the graveyard where Voldemort awaited him.

After Barty had left to take Moody’s place, Crouch Sr. had begun to successfully fight Voldemort’s Imperious Curse. That is why he had been forced to write in to say that he was ill so that he could remain under Wormtail’s guard at his house. As Harry had seen in his vision, Mr. Crouch had eventually managed to escape but, much to Winky’s distress, his son had found him when he arrived at Hogwarts and killed him, burying his body, disguised as a bone, on the grounds.

Crouch finished by telling them how he had offered to carry the Triwizard Cup into the maze that day so that he could alter it and how he had cleared the way for Harry, even using the Imperious curse on Krum and then Cedric to ensure that Harry was the one who touched the Cup. Then his head drooped onto his shoulder as Winky wailed and sobbed at this side.


	30. A Grave Retelling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry tells Dumbledore and Remus about what happened in the graveyard before Remus and Snape got there. Dumbledore begins to prepare for the fight against Voldemort.

Leaving McGonagall guarding Barty Crouch, Dumbledore sent Sirius to fetch Madam Pomfrey to aid Moody and to bring Fudge to interview Barty Crouch. Then he took Harry and Remus to his office. Remus protested when he realized where they were heading.

“Headmaster, Harry is worn out and may be injured, shouldn’t we be taking him to the hospital wing?”

“It’s all right, Moony,” Harry reassured him. “I’m not that tired, and the only thing Wormtail and Riddle did to me was cut my arm. I’ll be ok, at least until the Pepper-up potion wears off.”

Remus stopped and made Harry show him where the cut was. It wasn’t until he had satisfied himself that it posed no immediate danger to his son that he was willing to continue to the Headmaster’s office. They followed Dumbledore past the stone gargoyle and up the moving staircase. Dumbledore sat at his desk while Remus helped Harry into a chair in front of it, before standing beside it, his hand on Harry’s shoulder. Dumbledore leaned forward and fixed his gaze on Harry.

“I need to know what happened after you touched the Portkey in the maze, Harry,” he said.

Harry thought about everything that had happened that night and took a deep breath. He told them about how he had been bound to the gravestone by Wormtail, while he was incapacitated by the pain in his scar. He described the potion that had revived Voldemort and when he described how Wormtail had pierced his arm with the dagger, Dumbledore came around the desk to examine Harry’s arm, much as Remus had done on the way to the office.

“He said my blood would make me stronger than if he’d used someone else’s,” Harry told Dumbledore. “He said the protection my - my mother left in me - he’d have it too. And he was right - he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face.”

For a fleeting instance, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore’s eyes. But next second, Harry was sure he had imagined it, for when Dumbledore had returned to his seat behind the desk, he looked as old and weary as Harry had ever seen him.

“Very well,” he said, sitting down again. “Voldemort has overcome that particular barrier. Harry, continue, please.

Harry went on; he explained how Voldemort had emerged from the cauldron, and told them all he could remember of Voldemort’s speech to the Death Eaters. When he got to where Remus had cut his ropes, the werewolf took over in explaining how he and Sirius had rescued Harry and escaped from the graveyard. Finally, their tale was done and Remus was able to take Harry to the hospital wing and get him settled into bed.

When they entered the infirmary, they found that Sirius was waiting for them there, apparently reassuring Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Ron, Neville and Hermione that Harry was all right and should be there soon. Mrs. Weasley exclaimed and started to hurry towards Harry when she saw him, only to be held back by Sirius.

“Hold on Molly, let Madam Pomfrey get Harry settled into bed first. He’s had a rough night and I’m sure he’s exhausted.”

Madam Pomfrey bustled forward and led Harry to a nearby bed, reassuring him that Moody would be alright when the teen spotted the ex-Auror lying in a bed on the far side of the room. Once Harry had changed into the pajamas that Madam Pomfrey provided for him and was settled into bed, Sirius and Remus came and sat down on the chairs on either side of the bed, followed by Neville, Hermione, and the Weasleys. Ron handed him a very frantic snake.

“Why didn’t you come to get me from the weasel when you left the bushes? Why are we here in the place for the sick and injured? Are you injured?” Godric hissed worriedly, as he flicked his tongue at Harry. “You must be injured, I can smell blood.”

Godric started to slither into Harry’s shirt, trying to locate the injury he could smell.

“I’m alright, it was only a small cut. See?” Harry rolled up his sleeve and showed Godric the wound on his arm. “It’s only a scratch and it’s healed up already.”

“You should have taken me into the bushes with you,” scolded the snake. “I don’t like it when you go into danger without me. If I was with you I could have bit the one who did this before he could hurt you.”

Harry soothed Godric and then turned to his friends and family surrounding his bed.

“I’m all right, just tired,” Harry reassured them before taking a sip of the potion Madam Pomfrey gave him and dropping off into a deep sleep. As he drifted off he heard Remus quietly explaining to the others what had happened to him after he had reached the Cup.

Harry woke up later to the sound of a familiar deep voice.

“Of course the mutt did nothing to stop the Minister from summoning the dementor,” Severus sneered. “You should have known better than to give him a job of any importance.”

“I delivered Dumbledore’s message and then came here to check on Harry,” Sirius protested, pulling back the screen hiding Harry’s bed. “I didn’t know that Fudge summoned a dementor. What happened?”

“The Minister brought a dementor with him when he went to interview Barty Crouch!” Professor McGonagall replied. She was trembling with fury, her hands balled into fists by her side. Harry had never seen her so angry.

“I told him Dumbledore wouldn’t agree!” McGonagall continued. “But he wouldn’t listen! The moment that - that thing entered the room it swooped down on Crouch and - and -”

Harry felt a chill in his stomach as Professor McGonagall struggled to find words to describe what had happened. He did not need her to finish her sentence. He knew what the dementor must have done. It had administered its fatal kiss to Barty Crouch. It had sucked his soul out through his mouth. He was worse than dead.

“Unfortunately, that means that Barty Crouch can’t give his testimony about why he tampered with the Triwizard Cup and it seems that the Minister is unwilling to accept that Voldemort is back ...” Dumbledore looked at the group gathered around Harry’s bed.

“There is work to be done,” he said. “Molly … am I right in thinking that I can count on you and Arthur?”

“Of course you can,” said Mrs. Weasley. She was white to the lips, but she looked resolute.

“Then I need to send a message to Arthur,” said Dumbledore. “All those that we can persuade of the truth must be notified immediately, and he is well placed to contact those at the Ministry who are not as shortsighted as Cornelius.”

“I’ll go to Dad,” said Bill, standing up. “I’ll go now.”

“Excellent,” said Dumbeldore. “Tell him what has happened. Tell him I will be in direct contact with him shortly. He will need to be discreet, however. If Fudge thinks I am interfering at the Ministry -”

“Leave it to me,” said Bill.

As Bill left the room, Dumbledore turned to Professor McGonagall.

“Minerva, I want to see Hagrid in my office as soon as possible. Also - if she will consent to come - Madam Maxime.”

Professor McGonagall nodded and left without a word. Dumbledore then turned back to the group gathered around Harry’s bed.

“Sirius, Remus, I need you two to set off at once. You are to alert Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher - the old crowd, then head back to Grimmauld Place. I will contact you there.”

Sirius and Remus said goodbye to Harry and then Remus went over to where Severus was standing.

“Are you alright, Sev?” he asked quietly. “Riddle was pretty furious when we got away.”

Severus glared at him. “I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about me. Don’t the mutt and you have a job to do?”

Remus smiled faintly, “Of course, we’ll see you soon, Sev.”

Remus rejoined Sirius and they left the room. Harry sat up straighter in the bed.

“Are you sure you’re ok, Professor?” he asked anxiously. “Riddle didn’t use the Cruciatus Curse on you or anything?”

Severus transferred his glare to his son.

“I’m in perfect health, Potter,” he spat out. “The Dark Lord took his rage out on those unfortunates who had been between you and the Cup. Now take the rest of your potion and get some rest. We don’t need you collapsing from exhaustion tomorrow, no matter how much you might like the attention.”

“Severus! That’s no way to talk to one of your students,” Mrs. Weasley scolded before turning to Harry and picking up the bottle and goblet that stood on his bedside cabinet. “He is right though, Harry. You do need your rest.”

“The fiery furred weasel-mother is right, you need to sleep so you can heal,” Godric hissed. “The smelly one should not have brought those other noisy ones here to wake you up.”

“You understood what she said?” Harry asked in surprise.

“Enough,” the snake replied. “Your two-leg speech is confusing but I am beginning to understand it. Now sleep.”

Harry drank the potion Mrs. Weasley handed him in one gulp. The effect was instantaneous. Heavy, irresistible waves of dreamless sleep broke over him; he fell back on his pillows and fell asleep. When he woke up the next morning, he was alone in the infirmary except for Mad-Eye Moody, who was still asleep in the bed across the room. It wasn’t long before Madam Pomfrey came bustling in to bring him breakfast. It was right after he had finished that Cedric came to see him.

“Alright, Harry?” Cedric said awkwardly as he reached Harry’s bed. “Listen - I’m really sorry about what happened in the maze …”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Harry reassured him. “Crouch Jr. had used the Imperius Curse on you.”

Cedric looked miserable. “That shouldn’t have mattered. I’ve heard of how you were able to resist the Imperius Curse when Moody used it on you in Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

Harry shrugged, “I was the only one who was able to though. I guess most people just aren’t as stubborn as I am. And it’s not like you had any reason to resist it, you had no way of knowing that the Cup was booby-trapped. Anyway, Crouch would have made sure I touched that Cup some other way if his Imperio hadn’t worked, I’m just glad you didn’t get dragged along with me. I don’t think that Voldemort would have been willing to just let you go if that had happened.”

Cedric flinched at Harry’s mention of Voldemort.

“So You-Know-Who was there, wherever you were Ported off to? I heard that you had said he was back … but Dumbledore wouldn’t say anything about what had happened when he spoke to us at breakfast this morning. He just said to leave you alone and not ask you any questions …”

Cedric trailed off as he realized he was doing exactly what the Headmaster had told them not to do.

“It’s all right. I don’t mind talking about it,” Harry said. “The Cup brought me to a graveyard where Voldemort was waiting for me, along with Pettigrew. Voldemort got his body back and called his Death Eaters so he could boast about how clever he had been. I think he was planning to kill me, but Moony and Sirius got there before he was done gloating and got me out of there. I don’t know why Dumbledore didn’t say anything about it this morning but I do know that he’s getting people together to stop Voldemort before he gets too powerful.”

Cedric squared his shoulders, “I guess I need to talk to Dumbledore then. If You-Know-Who has returned then I’m not going to sit back and do nothing.”

Harry watched Cedric leave and hoped that the older boy hadn’t escaped unscathed from his encounter with one Death Eater only to die at the hands of another sometime in the future. He then wondered what Dumbledore had planned and what Sirius and Moony were doing. Had they delivered the Headmaster’s message to all of the old crowd yet? Were they back at Grimmauld Place waiting for Dumbledore to contact them or were they still traveling? 

Fortunately, before Harry could brood too much about not knowing what was going on, Fred and George stopped by to see him.

“So, how did they work?” Fred exclaimed as soon as he saw Harry.

“What?”

“Our fireworks, Weasley’s Wildfire Whiz-bangs,” said George. “Ron told us that Sirius used the one we gave him as a distraction when he and Moony rescued you. How did they look?”

“Oh, those, I wasn’t really paying attention but they made a very good distraction.” Harry thought for a bit,” I did like the dragon. It was pretty impressive.”

Fred beamed, “That one was George’s. They’re not quite finished yet. We’re planning on making more varieties, maybe have them interact with each other if they intersect …”

“If they’re going to be used in more missions like last night then maybe we should make them interact with spells as well,” George suggested.

“Yeah,” said Fred. “We could have them explode if they’re hit with a stunner.”

“Or multiply if someone tries to vanish them …” George said.

“Right, that’s a good one. We’ll have to write Sirius and Moony and see if they have any suggestions. Maybe they got a better look at them than Harry did last night.”

The twins left the hospital wing without saying goodbye to Harry, deep in discussion about how they could improve their fireworks. Ron, Hermione, and Neville came in to visit Harry shortly after Fred and George had left. Hermione apologized for not visiting earlier.

“I was waiting for these two to get up so we could have breakfast together and then come to see you,” she explained. I didn’t realize they were going to sleep so late.”

“Of course we slept in, Hermione,” Ron said. “We had a late night and we’re done with our exams. There’s nothing to get up early for.”

“I’m sure Harry would have appreciated some company this morning,” said Hermione.

“It’s ok, Hermione. I’ve had a lot of visitors this morning,” Harry said. “How did your exams go?”

“Now you’ve done it,” said Ron. “Harry doesn’t need a blow by blow account of every question on every exam, Hermione, just give him the highlights.”

Hermione huffed at Ron but she did keep her answer to Harry’s question short. Neville then suggested a game of Exploding Snap which kept them occupied until they had to leave for lunch. Harry was allowed to leave the infirmary that evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one more chapter to go.


	31. Choosing the Guard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Order of the Phoenix meets to discuss guarding Harry over the summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end of book four, finally. I've started working on Book 5 but it will take me a while to read through the Order of the Phoenix and figure out the plot for my fic so that I can start writing.

Saturday morning an eclectic assortment of witches and wizards arrived at 12 Grimmauld Place for the first meeting of the newly reinstated Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore informed them all of what had happened on the night of the third task.

“Minister Fudge is refusing to believe that Voldemort has returned so it will be up to those of us who know the truth to stand against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. To that end, Severus has returned to his role as a spy in the Death Eater ranks. I have given Hagrid the task of contacting the giants in the hope that he can convince them to fight on our side in the coming conflict or at least remain neutral. Remus, I would like you to do the same with the werewolves. Arthur has agreed to liaison with those within the Ministry who are willing to work with us, which brings me to my next concern. Cornelius will be trying to discredit Harry and separate him from those of us who support him. The simplest way to do this will be to have him expelled from Hogwarts for a violation of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Magic so we need a guard on Harry at all times to ensure that he does not use magic for any reason.”

“I am willing to visit the werewolves,” Remus said, “but as long as Harry is at his relative’s house I would like to be a part of his guard detail. After all, I have been in contact with Harry’s relatives since he has been at Hogwarts and it will be much easier to guard him with their cooperation.”

Sirius spoke up, “I’ll help Remus with guarding Harry.”

Dumbledore inclined his head, “Sirius and Remus will be in charge of arranging Harry’s guard, then. Remus, you can begin your visits to the werewolves when the guard is no longer needed.”

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other and then Sirius looked around the gathered members of the Order, both old and new. He and Remus had already discussed who they could trust with the secret of Harry’s true living situation and approached the most likely candidates as they had arrived for the meeting.

“Mrs. Figg, Bill, Tonks, and Cedric, please stay after the meeting so that we can discuss how we will be arranging the guard?” Sirius then looked over at Severus who glared back. “Snape, you too. We’ll need whatever you can tell us about Riddle’s forces and what we might be up against.”

Dumbledore smiled, “I believe that is everything we need to discuss today. Sirius has generously offered us the use of his house as headquarters for the Order and it will be put under the Fidelius Charm with me acting as the secret keeper. You will all be notified of the time of the next meeting as well as the location after that is done. Remember, Voldemort is still weak and if we stand together and oppose him now he may never have the opportunity to gather his strength as he did before.”

As the other members of the Order disbursed, Sirius led Remus and the five others that he had named to his father’s former office. Once they were inside he closed the door behind him and nodded to Severus.

“The room is secure, Sev, no one will be able to overhear us.”

“Good,” Severus said, circling the desk to settle himself into the chair there. “You’d better tell them what all this is about then.”

The others sat down as well and looked towards Sirius. He looked back at their puzzled expressions and spoke solemnly.

“The information I’m about to tell you is protected by the Fidelius Charm and I’m its secret keeper. If any of you aren’t comfortable with keeping a secret from the other order members, including Dumbledore, then I would suggest that you leave now.”

No one got up, although Cedric looked over at Remus to see how he was reacting to Sirius’s statement. When he saw that his former professor looked undisturbed by Sirius’s words he sank back into his chair and turned his attention back to Sirius. Tonks snorted.

“That’s enough with the dramatics, Sirius. Just tell us already.”

Sirius grinned, “Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Harry doesn’t live with his relatives in Little Whinging. Which is a very good thing since they apparently thought it was ok to lock a one-year-old in a boot cupboard.” Sirius looked around at the shocked expressions on his audience’s faces and dramatically declaimed. “Harry lives with Severus Snape, at 8 Hadon Gardens.”

Sirius gestured to Severus with a flourish and sat down. Three pairs of eyes moved as one to stare at their former Potions professor. The silence was broken by Mrs. Figg.

“And such a good job he and Remus have done. Harry is such a sweet boy.”

Recovering from his surprise, Bill frowned.

“What about the Blood Wards that Dumbledore mentioned? If Harry isn’t living with his relatives doesn’t that mean that the wards have collapsed?”

“The wards are still intact,” Remus said quietly. “They’re anchored to Sev, thanks to his Blood Bond with Lily Potter.”

“Now that that’s out of the way,” Severus said, “let’s get this over with. Mrs. Figg, your job will be to continue to report to Albus from Little Whinging to maintain the fiction that Harry is still residing there with the Dursleys. The rest of us will take it in turns to guard Harry around the clock. Since there are six of us we should divide the day into four-hour blocks, one for each of us.”

Soon they had drawn up a schedule that allowed for Bill and Tonks's work schedules, and Remus being unavailable during the full moon. Remus and Sirius also volunteered to be Severus’s backup, in case he was called by Voldemort during his shift.

On the day of the leaving feast, Harry packed his trunk, happy that the school year was almost over. He was tired of the scornful looks from the other students who believed what Fudge had said about him cheating to win the Tournament and he hadn’t had a chance to talk to his dad all week. Severus had been too busy between marking exams, attending Order meetings, and Voldemort's demands on his time.

The Great Hall was decorated in Yellow and Black in celebration of Cedric’s victory in the Triwizard Tournament. Harry hoped that Dumbledore wasn’t going to pull a stunt like he had in first year, the Hufflepuffs didn’t win the house cup very often and didn’t deserve to have it taken away from them at the last moment. Fortunately, no last-minute points were awarded, Dumbledore simply congratulated Cedric on his victory and started the feast. It wasn’t until the end of the feast that Dumbledore finally addressed the events of the 24th.

The entire hall erupted into horrified, disbelieving mutters and then gradually fell into silence when Dumbledore announced that Voldemort was back. Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw Draco mutter something to Crabbe and Goyle. He remembered Mr. Malfoy groveling before Riddle in the graveyard and his stomach sank. He continued to watch Draco while Dumbledore spoke about the importance of unity and friendship in opposing Voldemort, and wondered what the other boy would be going home to that summer. 

As they waited for the carriages to bring them to the train the next morning, the delegations for Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were also preparing to leave. Fleur came over to say goodbye to Harry, mentioning that she was hoping to get a job in England to work on her English, before heading over to tell Cedric goodbye as well. After she left Krum came over to wish Hermione goodbye, much to Ron’s displeasure. Krum pulled Hermione away from the others and spoke to her for a moment before coming over to say goodbye to Harry and his friends. Ron looked as though he was suffering some sort of painful internal struggle as he shook Krum’s hand. Krum had already started to walk away when Ron burst out, “Can I have your autograph?”

Hermione turned away, smiling at the horseless carriages that were now trundling towards them up the drive, as Krum, looking surprised but gratified, signed a fragment of parchment for Ron.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville managed to get a compartment to themselves on the train and spent the first part of the trip speculating on what Dumbledore was planning. After the lunch trolley arrived, Harry pulled out his copy of that day's Daily Prophet. He hadn’t looked at it when it had arrived during breakfast that morning.

Hermione, who had already looked through it said, ”There’s nothing in there today either. After that small piece the day after the third task saying that Cedric won the tournament, there’s been nothing at all. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet.”

“He’ll never keep Rita quiet,” said Harry. “Not on a story like this.”

“It wouldn’t do her any good to write the story if the Prophet refuses to publish it,” pointed out Neville.

“So we need to give her another way to publish,” said Harry. “I’ll talk to Dad and Moony about it this summer. Ron, you and Neville should look into it as well, maybe someone in your families will have an idea.”

“Luna Lovegood’s dad publishes a paper, Luna is our neighbour, she’s in Ginny’s year, in Ravenclaw I think,” Ron said suddenly. “It's rather a rag, always going on about creatures that no one else has heard of and crazy conspiracy theories and the like, but I’m sure he’d be willing to publish Rita’s story if the Daily Prophet won’t.”

“That’s great, Ron,” said Harry. “We should try to find her.”

But before they could leave the compartment the door slid open.

“What do you want Loony Lovegood for?” sneered Draco. “It’s not like anyone believes any of that trash her father publishes.”

Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind Draco. To Harry’s dismay, he saw that all three of them looked more pleased with themselves, more arrogant than Harry had ever seen them.

“So,” said Malfoy slowly, advancing slightly into the compartment and looking around at them, a smirk quivering on his lips. “Potter’s Dumbledore’s favorite boy again. Big Deal.”

“You’ve got something to say, Draco,” said Harry steadily. “Spit it out.”

“You’ve picked the losing side, Potter! I warned you! I told you you ought to choose your company more carefully, remember? When we first met on the train, our first day at Hogwarts? I told you not to hang around with riffraff like this!” He jerked his head and Ron, Neville, and Hermione. “Too late now, Potter! They’ll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord’s back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first!”

Harry noticed that his friends had their wands out, he held up a hand as he fixed his eyes on Draco.

“Do you know what I saw the night that Voldemort was resurrected, Draco?” Harry asked softly. “I saw your father, along with the other Death Eaters, groveling in the dirt before a monster, calling him master and kissing his robes. That is the glory you’re so eager for, debasing yourselves before a wizard whose experiments in dark magic have made him barely human. Win or lose, I would rather die standing against the evil that Voldemort represents than live groveling at his feet.”

“You’re lying!” Draco said angrily.

“I expect that you’ll see for yourself whether I’m lying or not this summer,” Harry said with a shrug. “And when you do, remember that it’s not too late for you to change sides. I will be waiting to help you if you do.” He then looked past Draco at Crabbe and Goyle, “That goes for the two of you as well, and anyone else who finds themselves trapped by their family’s choices.”

“Are these three bothering you, Harry,” Fred’s voice came from the corridor behind Crabbe and Goyle. “George and I can clear the trash away if you need us to.”

“No need,” Harry called back. “Draco and his friends were just leaving. Isn’t that right, Draco?”

Draco glared at the four teens in front of him, three of them with their wands firmly gripped in their hands and then looked back at the two older boys in the corridor behind him.

“Come on, you two, if we hang around here any longer I’ll never get the scent of Mudblood out of my robes,” he said to Crabbe and Goyle as he pushed past them. “Out of my way, blood-traitors,” he snarled at Fred and George who stepped aside and let the three Slytherins go by.

“Are you sure that you don’t need us to hex him for you,” said George as he watched Draco stalk down the corridor. “It would be no trouble at all. I’ve been wanting to get some practice with my Jelly-Legs hex.”

“Let him go,” said Ron with a grin. “Harry did enough damage to his ego for one day. Do you two know where we can find Loony Lovegood?”

Soon they were at the door of a compartment where a girl with straggly, waist-length, dirty-blond hair was sitting by herself.

“Hello, Luna,” Ron said awkwardly. “Is it alright if we join you?”

The girl lowered the magazine she had been reading and looked up at Ron, then her eyes ranged over Neville and Hermione before coming to a rest on Harry. She nodded and watched as they came in and sat down, her eyes on Harry the whole time.

“You’re Harry Potter,” she said in a dreamy voice.

“That’s right,” said Harry.

Neville chuckled and Luna turned her pale eyes upon him instead.  
  


“And I don’t know who you are.”

“This is Neville Longbottom, and Hermione Granger,” Harry said hurriedly. “We want to ask you for a favour, Luna. It’s really important.”

Luna looked at him in surprise.

“Your father is the editor of The Quibbler, isn’t he?” said Ron, nodding to the magazine she held in her hand.

Luna nodded.

“Do you think he’d be willing to publish an article by Rita Skeeter about what happened on the night of the third task if we got her to write it?” asked Harry.

“Of course,” Luna said in her dreamy voice. “It’s obvious that Minister Fudge is covering up the evidence of You-Know-Who’s return and my father has devoted his life to revealing the truth that the Ministry is trying to conceal.”

Harry smiled, “That’s great. Now we just need to get in touch with Rita Skeeter to get the story written.”

Luna smiled back, before returning to read her copy of The Quibbler. Harry and his friends returned to their compartment and spent the rest of the journey playing Exploding Snap with Fred and George. When they arrived at Kings Cross, Remus and Sirius were waiting on platform 9 ¾ and Harry’s friends said goodbye to him when they reached them.

“You’ll be seeing them at my place, as soon as Dumbledore says it’s ok,” Sirius reassured him as Harry watched Neville go meet up with his grandmother and Ron and Hermoine exit through the barrier.

“I can’t wait to see it,” said Harry. “But right now I just want to go home.”

“Then let’s go,” Remus said, pulling Harry to his side and apparating him away, followed by Sirius with Harry’s trunk.


End file.
